


i'm secretly a vigilante (please don't tell anyone)

by settertobio (Phant0mh1ve)



Category: Persona 5, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: BAMF Midoriya Izuku, Dekusquad (My Hero Academia), I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Not Beta Read, Persona 5 AU, Persona AU, Tododeku endgame, Vigilante Midoriya Izuku, and midoriya is given the app to navigate it, but we're getting rid of him asap dw, eventually, just imagine the normal mha world except the metaverse exists, kamoshida exists because i dont want to do the teachers in UA dirty, mineta exists, not an exact parallel of the events of persona 5, the midorigang are the phantom thieves, well!!!! i mean technically!!!, why? we will see
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:22:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21812881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phant0mh1ve/pseuds/settertobio
Summary: Izuku Midoriya expected his day to go like this: he'd wake up early, go for a run, and show up to his first day of school with a spare half hour on his hands. He'll try not to get everyone to hate him, and he'll avoid Kacchan by all means necessary.He did not, however, expect to find himself standing in front of a castle. Are there any castles in Musutafu? Surely not.Or: in which the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, in an attempt to reform society, expose the misdeeds of crooked heroes and those in high positions - because someone needs to keep the heroes in check. Izuku may or may not be the leader, and he may or may not be a hopeful hero moonlighting as a vigilante?
Relationships: Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijirou, Midoriya Izuku/Todoroki Shouto
Comments: 45
Kudos: 176





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> the title is a placeholder until i think of something better
> 
> please proceed to read the author notes that i wrote at uhh 3 am this morning? not proofread at all but bear with me bear with me  
> \-----
> 
> hello everyone!! before we begin i would like to address the crowd of four (4) people who will ultimately be reading this mess
> 
> first, to those who came here bc of my other fic or know me from that: the inevitable happened and i burned out because  
> 1\. there are many fics with the concept of izuku inheriting his quirk from both parents  
> 2\. there are many fics with the concept of izuku’s father being a villain, as well as depicting him as something other than an invisible (?) parent  
> 3\. there are many with far better takes than my fic  
> 4\. that concept doesn’t really interest me anymore and I’ll most likely end up rewriting the shows script save for a few differences if I continued anyway  
> 5\. My depiction of izuku and hisashis interactions, as well as how izuku reacts to and copes with them, are probably very inaccurate coming from an unqualified person who has never experienced something to that extent before !  
> and that is why i now consider that fic to be one of my severe lapses in judgement !! i am terribly sorry for disappointing those who wanted to see more from that, and also very thankful towards those who gave it a lot of love and interest !! when I say I was sitting there gaping at my computer screen at 2 in the morning because PEOPLE ACTUALLY WANT TO READ MY STORIES WHAT i am not exaggerating 
> 
> secondly, here are a few things regarding my take on this concept:  
> my intention was to bring a concept such as the metaverse + representations of the human mind and subconscious + personas into the bnha universe and morph it into one that fits into that world ! there will not be any real gods involved or anything it is still a universe where only quirks exist as something that is ‘out of the ordinary’. i wanted to explore how a character like izuku would change by an introduction to this concept, and this was - to me - the best way to do so as it uses his character in its purest form? that being said the characters and events in this fic won’t be exact parallels to those in persona 5, but there will definitely be some similarities
> 
> and izukus personality will DEFINITELY be different in this story we want bamf izuku raises pitchfork 
> 
> and also no izuku will not be reforming every single villain that exists because one that is boring and we need plot and two thats impossible he's also going to be doing things like mementos tasks so
> 
> anyway take this fic from my sleep deprived slightly delirious 3 am self! spare patience and love please

This, Izuku thinks, is not how he expected to spend his first day of high school.

Chancing a look at the gaping redhead next to him, he allows himself to assume that Kirishima is currently going through a similar thought process.

They’re both… in a castle. Schools are not usually castles, and castles aren’t usually situated right in the middle of a city, and Musutafu does not have any castles as far as Izuku is aware. He, therefore, highly doubts that UA is a castle - he’s seen the pictures on the internet, hell, he’s been there for his entrance exam! 

“Did we… make a wrong turn somewhere?” Kirishima inquires slowly, already visibly doubtful before he even finishes his words.

“I don’t think so… it says ‘UA’ right there,” Izuku points out. He’s not sure how to feel. Kirishima looks nervous, gaze flicking up to the stormy purple sky. He also looks confused, like he’s debating smacking himself extremely hard in order to figure out if he’s dreaming. 

“Is this a prank?” He looks down at his phone, adding, “I don’t think there’s any signal here.”

“Probably? This can only be the work of someone’s quirk,” Izuku reasons, storing that piece of information in his mind for later, self-consciously stopping a slew of mumbled words from escaping his mouth. He feels like mumbling isn’t quite helpful for either of them right now. When he notices the other making a move towards the entrance, he cautiously voices his protests with a raised hand.

“Ah, maybe going in wouldn’t be the best idea...” he begins, continuing with flushed cheeks when the other turns to stare at him, “... maybe we should figure out what exactly this is first.” He stops, thinking to himself. “Maybe how to get out, too. I know we’re really early, but I don’t want to risk being late.”

Kirishima’s determined gaze falters. “Yeah, good point. You got any ideas?”

“Well-” Izuku’s voice flickers out from the pressure of the redhead’s attention. This is the first time someone’s ever taken him seriously, and he’s unused to having his say. Normally Kacchan would interrupt him, throw in some line about his irrelevance, and probably top it off with a threatening explosion. Swallowing the strange feeling in his chest, he thinks back to the odd appearance of an app on his phone the same morning - he had deleted it, promising to himself to get it checked, but is it a pure coincidence? He lifts up his phone, starting in shock when he finds it open on a black and red interface. Its colour scheme is exactly like the app’s icon. Didn’t he delete that app? “What the…”

Kirishima makes an interested hum, peering at his screen. “Oh, didn’t your phone make some weird notification back at the station? Something like ‘beginning navigation’?”

Izuku hadn’t noticed. He then connects the dots in his brain, yelping at the realisation. “Wait! In that station I felt a sudden dizzy spell, and my vision went all strange!”

“Bro…” Kirishima’s brows furrow. “So did I! I didn’t mention it ‘cause I thought it was the two hours of sleep I got last night.”

“Me too- anyway, what were we talking about when that happened?” Izuku continues, voice gradually escalating, heart pounding in his chest. It must be what he thinks it is! He sees the gears turning in the other’s head.

“About… that guy on the train…” 

“Who was talking about a king of a castle,” Izuku finishes for him, the words obviously directed to the vast structure ahead of them and their correlation. He barely inhales before adding to his spoken deductions. “He was talking about the Pro Hero - Asmodeus - who works at this school as the PE teacher and coach of the volleyball club. We were basically repeating what he was saying.”

“Sounded like he had a real problem with that guy,” Kirishima snorts, shaking his head. He can tell the redhead has never heard of the Hero, nor of the rumours surrounding his name, but elects to drop the issue for now. “Wonder why. So what you’re telling me is those were- like-”

Izuku tosses around the thoughts in his mind, the rate at which they move around excited by the development of the situation. “Keywords? And this app suspiciously appeared on my phone, and it apparently uses those keywords to get us to this… place?” He observes the atmosphere that surrounds the castle, how the clear blue skies fall into angry hues dense with clouds. “It’s like it’s another world, based on the real one.” Unable to resist, he lets his thoughts spill out further. “It’s so weird! Everything before this looks exactly like the real world, we couldn’t tell the difference! And the people walking around here don’t even bat an eye - are they even real people?”

Kirishima looks like he’s one hair away from cursing profusedly, although not in a negative way. His red eyes sparkle in awe. “Woah. Midoriya, my dude, you’re so smart? Like what?”  
Izuku makes an unintelligible noise, beyond any of the existing planes of the Japanese language. He turns his face away to hide his flaming face, which surely tells of his lack of experience with compliments, hearing a laugh from the other. It’s not malicious-sounding, so he sucks it up and clears his throat.

“Sorry. I, uh, well, thank you!” Izuku says shortly, sounding constipated even to himself. “Uh, so if we follow the idea that this app is what brought us to this place, we should be able to use it in order to leave, right?”

“Right!” Kirishima squints at the screen, eyes trailing the white text emblazoned on the dark background. “Try that ‘options’ menu.” Izuku silently obeys, finding that the option to leave is enabled. His finger shoots out to tap the button on his screen, and the world collapses around them. 

“Returned to the real world. Thank you for your hard work.” The woman’s faint voice prompts Izuku to open his eyes, which had been clamped shut from the vertigo. He feels a faint pressure release from his shoulder as Kirishima unsticks his hand, and he watches in slight amazement as the boy’s skin reverts from its hardened state.

“Sorry about that,” he says apologetically. “Thank god we’re back, though.”

“Yeah…” Izuku looks around. The area is, thankfully, mostly deserted, and the people who are in the area don’t bat an eye. “I hope we’re in a blind spot from the cameras. Would be hard to explain why we basically apparated into view in front of the school.”

“Teleportation quirk,” Kirishima grins, then sees Izuku’s poorly-concealed unimpressed look. “Right. They know our quirks. And they’d chew us out for irresponsible quirk use, or something.”

The pair stand in silence. They both allow themselves to absorb the past ten minutes - the whole morning, really. It’s a lot, and the fact that they’re in UA for the hero course is the cherry on top. Izuku begins to feel slightly awkward, finally registering that he’s basically entered another universe with someone he just met that morning. It’s accessible through an app, too, of all things! Someone in UA uniform gives them a weird look as he walks past, causing him to finally jump out of his stupor.

“Ah! Class! We’re gonna be late!” He checks himself, adjusts his bag straps, runs a hand through his hair. Stares at the icon of the app called ‘MetaNav’, then resolutely shuts off his phone. “I feel like we should keep this a secret. At least until we know what the heck we’re doing.”

“Very solid plan.” Kirishima nods solemnly, before a silly grin enters his face, exposing sharp teeth. “You’re in my class, right? That’s perfect!” The boy carefully prods his hair, which has been styled into rather eccentric spikes, and the pair make their way through the school’s gates at last. 

(Is his hair naturally like that, like Kacchan’s hair?)

Izuku marvels at the tall building, how fragments of the sunlight reflect off the window panels, how the clouds in the sky are mirrored. It’s not a castle. It’s a stark contrast from the rather unwelcoming sight of that intimidating structure, its towering form wrapped in purple clouds. He stops there, pushing aside all thoughts of the castle, because it’s the only way he’ll get through this day, and he knows he’ll have plenty of time to hash over it with Kirishima.

He slows down to stare at the male’s back. He smiles to himself. Kirishima’s nice. He was hoping to make a fresh start at his new high school, and feels like he’s already made a long-lasting friend - they stuck together upon meeting on the train out of the shared nerves and excitement that only fresh first-years can share, found a secret that is to be kept between the two, and will eventually go through hero training together. He already feels a bond forming between them, and it feels warm and promising.

With the aid of a lingering teacher in the hallway - Present Mic, Izuku screams in his head, for the hero fanboy within him never dies - as well as the promise of an autograph when they all have more time, they find themselves outside their classroom. With a shared look, he helps Kirishima open the comically large door, and if he lets out a feeble ‘oh my god’ then nobody else knows.

The entrance of the pair silences the multitude of conversations occurring in the room, and Izuku has the feeling that the most ideal action is to sneak into his seat, avoiding the press of eyes on his form. He sees a girl with earphone jacks hanging from her ears, a blond boy with a tail, and a set of floating girl’s uniform, and immediately feels out of place.

He’s already exhausted. With his head resting in his arms, he waits for their homeroom teacher to make an appearance and lead them to orientation.

. 

So. Many things happen.

Many, many things. Izuku’s can’t fathom just how many things could happen in a day.

Kacchan is in his class, apparently, which definitely does something to his intentions of a fresh start, but he can work with this. 

His homeroom teacher is Eraserhead. Underground hero, full name Aizawa Shouta, 30 years old. Izuku decides to add ‘has a bright yellow sleeping bag’ to his notes once he gets the chance. Nullifies another’s quirk as long as they are within his line of sight, fights mostly quirkless. Apparently, his quirk gives him dry eye. 

He expected his teacher to be a Pro Hero - after all, the majority of UA’s faculty consists of those - but being so close to the underground hero certainly left him a little frazzled. Not to mention the fact that his teaching methods appear to be a little unorthodox; again, expected, because it’s what UA is known for, but he hadn’t really expected to end up going through a quirk apprehension test rather than the orientation. He comes out of it with a broken finger, a revelation involving his admittedly rather new quirk, and without the title of ‘Expelled On his First Day’. 

Apparently, Aizawa’s threat of expulsion was a ‘logical ruse’. Izuku was torn between bursting into tears and throwing something when he revealed this.

The rest of his day is mainly composed of introductions. He finally gets his Present Mic signature (thank goodness he brought his notebook to school, which isn’t koi-bitten and contains a fresh All-Might signature), exchanges numbers with Kirishima, and talks it out with Iida, who had been a slight overbearing experience in the entrance exams. Converses with Uraraka, too, who he saved in the practicals in exchange for a few broken limbs, and seems glad that he’s managed to snag a position in their class. He’s approached by All Might, the praise of his mentor inducing the spring in his step as he heads home to a bowl of katsudon and excited, proud mother, and tells her about the three new friends he’s made today. It’s all been a stark contrast to his previous life in Aldera, which was simply another chapter in his life filled with emptiness and bullying. He thinks about the previous ten or so months, which were part of an odd transitional period that started when All Might asked him to be his successor, and looks back on a now fond memory.

Izuku thought he was running out of time, was ready to give up hope and accept the niggling voice in the corner of his brain. Of all people in the world, his all-time idol - All Might, the number one hero, the Symbol of Peace - showed him a way to enable the transition of his hopes into reality, and here he is. He still feels like that quirkless middle school child, despite the strength of One For All coursing through his veins like crackling fireworks.

He’s the successor of the Symbol of Peace. He has a quirk, and best of all, he can be a hero. The words of his mentor from all those months ago resonate in his senses, and when the day is over he nearly screams into his pillow, as if he’s just realising the gravity of his current situation.

As he finishes scrolling through Twitter for the night, he finds himself staring at the app’s strange icon of an eye. The sight of it brings back associated memories and sensations: the churning of the world around him, how his body seemingly topples into a void, yet remains tucked under the covers of his bed. 

He knows little about the app’s background and purpose beyond allowing the user to navigate between worlds. It’s shrouded in mystery, and - if he’s being honest - feels rather dangerous. Like some deity above looked at this formerly quirkless kid, had a chuckle, and decided to play around. Izuku doesn’t know if this is adding to his incredible luck, or is simply a trap. In fact, a part of him wishes to forget about it and never go in again, but he’s cursed with a nature to be curious about everything around him.

Hell, if he can survive a slime villain, single-handedly cleaning up an entire beach, and a day under the instruction of Eraserhead, he can surely handle a castle. 

After shooting a quick text to Kirishima with a goodnight message alongside promises of planning a time to investigate the other world together, he sets his alarm to five in the morning and replaces his phone under his covers next to him. He’s starting to feel the exhaustion of Recovery Girl’s quirk - a healed finger in exchange for some of his energy. Closing his eyes with a deep sigh, he quickly finds some well-deserved sleep in the still darkness, face buried in his overstuffed pillow.

. 

“What do you mean?” Aizawa questions gruffly. Nezu’s expression is impassive as he takes a sip of his tea. The rest of the staff look on in concern.

“For a solid five minutes - before we noticed and promptly dealt with the situation - a few of our security cameras blacked out completely. Unfortunately, we cannot figure out why.” He pauses, seeing the stony expression that hardens the man’s features. “They were the ones looking out from the entrance.” A projector drops down the wall adjacent to his seat, and the heroes in the room turn to watch the recorded footage. A few seconds pass with all of the cameras displaying nothing out of the ordinary, before several appear to turn black simultaneously. The video then visibly cuts to the next five minutes, where they return to normal. Aizawa watches with narrowed eyes as Izuku Midoriya and Eijirou Kirishima, of his homeroom class, walk across the view of several screens.

The Pro Hero scowls, interrupting the pregnant silence. “And all of the students went through that entrance.”

“Correct. This occurred before school hours. We have to be cautious.” Nezu observes the reactions of everyone in the room.

Vlad King makes a frustrated noise. “No traces, nothing?”

“Nothing. Not even the alarm system went off,” the rodent confirms. “Funnily enough, it seemingly happened out of nowhere. It could be passed off as a malfunction - but that is impossible.” His tone sends a chill down the spines of the teachers in his office. All Might sips his tea nervously.

“Yes… right on the first day of school, too.” He says, coughing behind his hand. 

“Oh, dear.” Midnight rubs her temple.

The principal smiles. “Indeed. This is an interesting development. However, there is no need to worry. Just take extra precautions, and don’t be surprised if a series of… unforeseen events occur over the course of the year.” He lowers his teacup to his desk with the composure of a meditating old man. “Or the next few years,” he adds. The projector vanishes into the ceiling, and he slides something into his pocket. “Well, that’s all!” His cheerful voice puts a full stop to the meeting, but the tension in the atmosphere doesn’t relax, and the teachers exchange glances as they file out of the room.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things happen, and our two favourite friends revisit the castle.

On his first official full day of school, Izuku finds himself being paired up with Uraraka by All Might to fight as heroes against Iida and Kacchan, which, obviously, ends up being somewhat disastrous. He could go without a slightly traumatising confrontation with his childhood bully, as well as another lecture from Recovery Girl about his subsequent injuries.

He loses the battle though wins the war, and can tell that his victory breaks something in the hotheaded blond. If he knows anything about him, it’s not so simple as bitterness over a loss in a fight. Kirishima had been rather amiable with the other during the quirk apprehension test, though the battle trials leave him acting a little more cautious than necessary around him.

After knocking out from exhaustion and realising that he’s practically missed out on the entire day of school, Izuku vows to stop injuring himself so often. He still meets up with Kirishima after school - giving Kacchan a wide berth, watching as he leaves the school grounds with a hunched form - and tries to insist on ignoring the cast that encases his arm in favour of exploring the castle.

“Midoriya,” Kirishima tells him seriously, handing him a taiyaki from the street vendor nearby, “I’d be breaking bro code if I forced you to do anything other than relax. That castle ain’t going anywhere, okay?”

He bites into the tail of the red bean-filled snack with an enthusiastic word of thanks, stopping to indulge in the sweet anko flavour. Swallowing hastily, he opens his mouth to protest. “But you wanted to-”

“Nope,” Kirishima grins at him, teeth razor-sharp. “No ‘buts’. I don’t really don’t mind! We can do it tomorrow after school instead, after you can fully heal from Recovery Girl’s quirk.”

Izuku ignores the guilt. “If you say so. Still, I’m sorry that you have to wait for me...” He then has a double-take at the redhead’s taiyaki. “What on earth?”

The other continues to rip off the outside of the fish-shaped confection with his teeth, completely leaving out the filling. “Yeah?”

“Nothing,” Izuku concedes with a sigh. The two find a seat at a park bench, admiring the views of cherry blossom season and the way the green fields are framed by a sea of dusty pink. They spend the rest of the evening like that, talking about their day and gushing over All Might’s manliness in person. No amount of time as the hero’s protege will dull Izuku’s admiration, and Kirishima has no idea.

The evening ends with the pair being on first-name basis, and the next day opens up with a surprisingly normal homeroom session. Aizawa tells them to have a class representative by the end of the period, and thus Iida attempts to host a class vote. Izuku is, for the lack of a better word, shocked when he wins the class election, and stands in front of the room sweating bullets. He hates every second of it, but he feels the lingering effects of Recovery Girl’s quirk and, with this being paired with his fear of public speaking, really can’t be bothered trying to protest. Assigned as the deputy representative, Yaoyorozu - a girl with a sleek black ponytail and perfect posture - looks more than a little put-off.

He sits with Kirishima - Eijirou - at lunch. “Should we do it right after school?”

His friend attacks his sandwich with vigour before answering. “You mean go into the castle? Yeah, I’ll tell mum I’ll be staying back after school.”

Izuku pulls out his phone to do the same thing. Inko Midoriya is more than pleased to hear that he’s spending time with a friend. “We need to find a better place to go in and leave, though. I’m not sure how we weren’t caught last time.”

“Caught doing what?” A high voice interrupts their conversation, and both boys jump when Uraraka slides into the seat next to Izuku. Iida soon follows.

“Midoriya, if you’ve been doing something that is morally or legally-”

“No! It’s not what you think!” Izuku practically shouts. It’s a miracle none of the other tables in the cafeteria pay them any mind, but he’s still embarrassed. He wrings his sweaty hands together underneath the table. “We- we- wuh- video games-”

“Oh!” Uraraka perks up. “No need to be so nervous! Iida, stop being so scary!” She giggles at the bespectacled boy, who apologises to Izuku with somewhat robotic arm motions. “What game do you guys play?”

Eijirou cuts in smoothly before Izuku, curse his blubbering mouth, can dig himself into a new hole. “Minecraft. We played together on a server yesterday.” He smiles, and Izuku sings praises to his friend through telepathic communication.

“As the class representative, I insist you spend time focusing on your studies. I understand the requirement for some leisure time, but-”

“Anyway,” Uraraka leans in, effectively cutting off Iida’s sentence, which is dangerously close to turning into a rant. He only looks slightly offended. “Class representative, huh? How do you feel?” Izuku leans away subconsciously, fighting down the redness that threatens to reach his ears. Eijirou may have helped him adjust to friendships a little, but he’s very unused to talking to girls. It doesn’t help that Uraraka is, admittedly, very cute.

“I,” he begins, before clearing his hoarse throat, “don’t know…”

“What do you mean?” Eijirou enquires, catching his dwindling confidence. Iida chugs a glass of orange juice, but he can feel the boy paying attention to the conversation.

“Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but I… don’t think I can deal with this,” he admits. “I’m not a leader type of person, and even standing in front of everyone almost induces a nervous breakdown.”

“I think you are worthy of the title!” Iida tells him. “You are a very admirable person. You figured out the truth about the entrance exam, and proved that you make a fine hero.” Izuku believes that it’s time to give up on trying to tell him that he was completely oblivious about the hidden rescue point system. Eijirou and Uraraka, however, agree with his point.

“Yeah, dude! I think you’re really manly but like? In your own way?”

“Nobody else helped me escape the zero-pointer robot,” Uraraka points out. “You could have spent that time trying to get some extra points before the exam was over, but you risked failing the exam by helping me.” Her voice is clear with admiration, and Izuku just wants to disappear into the floor. He instead resorts to staring at his food while fighting a teary smile.

“Thanks, guys…” I can never get used to this.  
Out of nowhere, an alarm trips off, alerting everyone in the cafeteria and school. Eijirou looks up in confusion, and Uraraka lets out a confused noise, and Izuku can only watch as students immediately fly out of their seats. “What’s going on?”

“The security system was tripped! UA’s been infiltrated!” Iida shouts over the cacophony of panicked voices. “We must evacuate!”

“Villain attack!”

“Oh my god!”

“Move! We need to get out of here!”

Heartbeat stuttering, Izuku carefully lifts himself up, avoiding the students that rush past. The rest of his tablemates turn to him, and he looks back with anxiety clawing in his chest. “Can we- can we stick together? I wanna see what’s going on.” They nod, and the group leaves together, attempting to navigate through the chaos. He feels hands everywhere, and discomfort makes those touches burn on his skin, but he manages to push himself through with some success. When he finally reaches the window and peers outside, he feels his eyes widen. Did nobody else bother to look outside?

“What is it?” Uraraka yells, a metre or so away. Izuku gestures wildly. “It’s just a bunch of news reporters! They’ve been outside the school since the morning!” He adds, although he knows that the female is probably aware. Iida and Eijirou, who manage to hear their interaction, observe their surroundings with disbelief at the unnecessary panic. The former’s eyebrows draw together in determination.

“Uraraka! Please use your quirk on me!” Confused, the brunette silently complies, straining to reach his shoulder through several bodies. With a smack of her hand, the male’s feet leave the ground, and he applies his own quirk to fly to the end of the hallway, making a stop above the door. Izuku, despite the fact that there are more pressing matters at hand, can’t help but compare his odd pose to the figure in the ‘exit’ sign.

“Everyone,” Iida booms, and the surrounding area already feels quieter. “Please do not panic! This behaviour is unbecoming of UA students! There is no threat, and only the media have entered the grounds!”

Izuku is astonished by his commanding tone. The flow of students stills, and the shouts are reduced to a murmur. He thankfully stops cowering against the window.

He commanded the attention of everyone and calmed them down within seconds. Iida would make a much better class representative.

Lunch ends, and the media is shooed away. Izuku wonders how they even got in. He leaves his final class of the day with Eijirou by his side, the duo managing to avoid Iida and Uraraka’s intentions of following them to the station. They find themselves strolling into a walkway not too far from the high school, fenced off in between two unassuming houses, and Izuku pulls out his phone, tapping on the MetaNav application.

“If we were correct last time…” he takes a deep breath, looks around shiftily, and speaks. “What’s Asmodeus’ real name again? Ah! Kamoshida!” His phone chimes in affirmation. “Castle.” Another ding. “UA Academy.” His vision spins, and Eijirou’s breath hitches as they enter the other world.

“That must’ve worked, huh?” His partner muses. They walk out of the unchanged area into the street ahead, and see the looming castle in the distance.

“Yup.” Izuku allows the redhead to lead the way. “Check if your quirk works here, by the way. What’s our plan for this?”

“It works. And we walk right in,” Eijirou inputs seriously. When he says nothing, he turns back. “What else are we gonna do?”

“True,” Izuku says weakly.

“It’ll be fine,” Eijirou reassures him. He stops to pat him on the head, and Izuku swipes at his hand with a whine, falling into an equal pace with the other as they approach the castle’s entrance once more.

.

Izuku is... on the ground. Did he somehow get hurt again? He forces his eyes open, watching as his surroundings slowly clear.

“... Izuku? Oh, thank fuck!” Eijirou’s hushed voice enters his hearing, stained with relief. He's kneeling in front of him, one hand on his shoulder. Izuku’s head pounds in protest as he lifts himself up, the cold from the floor bleeding into his hands. It takes a short while, but he manages to register his surroundings after stars stop obstructing his vision. They’re in a prison cell.

“What,” he can only let out. He turns to Eijirou, seeing his guilt-ridden face. The boy has never seen his friend this solemn, with his demeanour always matching his eye-catching, somewhat loud features.

“I’m sorry,” he says quietly. “I froze up. They got you before I could use my quirk and fight back.” He curls in on himself, and Izuku realises how small the boy looks in the dim lighting of the cell. “Man, am I useless or what?” Eijirou laughs self-deprecatingly, avoiding eye contact, and Izuku is frankly stunned, unsure of how to react to this new side to him.

“Are… you okay?” Izuku questions carefully, and he sees his hands tense, before he lets out another laugh.

“What?” He gives him a fake smile, one that stretches far too wide, but the disbelief in his voice is very much real. “You just got knocked out by a bunch of weird guards and you’re asking me?”

Izuku’s mind flashes back to their confrontation upon entering the castle. They were surrounded by guards wielding staffs, and - he winces as a ghost pain knocks at his skull - he was, indeed knocked out after blindly lashing out. At least they now know that their presence isn’t very welcome.

Apparently, his tendency to act without thinking has also gone unchecked.

He’s extremely worried. What if they’re stuck here forever? Eijirou’s surely tried breaking out, so his hardened skin probably can’t stand a chance against the iron bars. Izuku could try using One For All, but he thinks that a little self-preservation would go a long way, and he doesn’t want to become a liability should he overdo it again.

He’s also worried about Eijirou. “If you’re useless by not reacting in time, then so am I for failing to fight back,” he tells him with a frown. “If you were the one who got hurt, you wouldn’t want me to beat myself up over it, right? See, it was nobody’s fault.” Eijirou remains silent, but he knows that he’s not entirely convinced. Perhaps this is a whole can of worms that needs to be opened another time.

“Anyway,” he says, cheerful for someone who’s internally panicking, standing up and almost tipping over, “let’s figure out how to leave this jail cell. D’you think you could…” he trails off at the echo of approaching footsteps and the clinking of metal. Frozen, Izuku can only watch as… a man in a crown walks up to the iron bars. His figure is swathed in a gaudy cape, and he’s probably in his underwear. He’s actually kind of intimidated.

The man smirks at them, his chin jutting out in a way that makes him resemble a bearded dragon puffing itself up. His eyes glow a menacing yellow as they narrow, blatantly scanning Izuku and Eijirou, who stare back in trepidation.

“So you’re the intruders?” he inquires, although it feels more like a blatant statement in the way his oily voice drops down condescendingly. “Figures. Don’t worry, you two will learn your place soon enough.”

“What do you mean?” Eijirou demands. If he were a cat, Izuku would see his fur standing on end.

The man’s eyes flash. “Don’t speak to your king like that. Where are your manners?” The redheaded student raises his eyebrows.

“King?” Izuku splutters, before it clicks. “Wait… you’re Asmodeus?” He doesn’t think the Pro Hero would be caught dead in such an outfit. Is it really him? He’s never seen the man in UA before since he’s not in any of his classes, nor is he a part of his volleyball club, but something feels extremely wrong. The man’s smile widens, showing a new interest that concerns him even further.

“At least you’re not entirely clueless. Your friend over there just looks like a foolish hopeful who plans on riding the wave at UA based on pure luck alone. Someone needs to teach you all a lesson!” Asmodeus - Suguru Kamoshida - steps back, and his guards approach the cell. With a clicking noise, the doors swing open, and Eijirou pounces with a snarl. Before Izuku can even blink, before he can yell in protest, his friend is flipped over on the floor with a loud smack, a spearhead poised above his left eye as he’s pinned to the surface. Kamoshida cackles from the doorway.

“Pah! Foolish peasant.” He lifts a hand to his hip. “I assume you wanted to see what happens when a subject displays misconduct in my castle.”

“No!” Izuku screams, and he’s slammed against the wall, the air knocked out of his lungs with a wheeze. He sees Eijirou thrashing, trying to shut his eyes, twist his head away. Izuku knows his quirk can withstand a few blows, but maintaining that hardened skin takes a toll over time. He doesn’t want to see how an endurance battle will turn out. “Fight! You can do it!”

“If you don’t stop thrashing I’ll kill your friend right now,” Kamoshida snaps, and Eijirou goes deathly still.

“Are you kidding me,” he whispers. Izuku feels cold, and he knows that this has gone terribly, terribly wrong, and that they should have never come back to this stupid castle.

He can’t even do anything without hurting himself. If he hurts himself, he can’t save Eijirou. If he doesn’t, he can’t save Eijirou. He can only watch as the boy is mauled by Kamoshida’s stupid minions. It’ll be fine, he said! Just walk in, he said! Izuku should have slapped some sense into the both of them. Hot tears blur his vision, and he’s stupid, stupid, stupid. Crying is stupid, Kacchan always called him a crybaby, he’s just a stupid crybaby-

_So you’re just going to give up and feel sorry for yourself?_

There’s- there’s another voice in Izuku’s mind. An unknown presence rises from within: unknown, yet not unfamiliar. It feels like a piece of him. Time seems to slow down, and there’s a burning, searing power welling up in his body.

_If you don’t do anything, he dies, you know. Will you really let someone’s words get to you?_

_Useless Deku_ , Kacchan’s voice whispers. _You can never be a hero._

_After everything? Did you really go through everything just to give up now?_

Regardless of their relentless words, Izuku held on to all shreds of hope that he had left. It had gone through the wringer of the years, beaten up and tattered by explosive hands and angry red eyes and scornful laughs, but even now… he still wants to be a hero.

Cold taunts are replaced by his mentor’s words. _You can be a hero._

_You can be a hero._

Izuku’s vision splits the jail cell into two, spinning in and out of focus like a struggling camera. The voice chuckles with satisfaction.

_I see_ , it muses. A shockwave ripples through his core, setting his nerves on fire. His yell of pain is met with a shove, though his body is numb to anything outside the storm within. He’s given a brief respite before it comes back, again and again and again, and he’s left gasping for breath each time, cold sweat forming a thin layer underneath his uniform. In the depths of his mind, he feels that power from before steadily increase. _I am thou, thou art I…_

Eijirou makes a noise of pain.

_Thou who art willing to perform all sacrilegious acts for thine own justice!_

His knuckles turn white. He can’t see.

_Call upon my name, and release thy rage!_ Almost by command, Izuku lets out an ear-splitting yell, feeling tears prick in the corner of his eyes when the pain almost becomes unbearable. His body tenses, then falls slack against the wall.

He’s in pain. He’s angry. Angry at the world, angry at himself, angry at Kacchan, angry at Kamoshida. All of his emotions have expanded until it’s impossible to rein them in.

There’s a name on the tip of his tongue.

_Show the strength of thy will to ascertain all on thine own, though thou be chained to Hell itself!_

He knows what to do. He doesn’t question it. He can save Eijirou.

_You can be a hero_ , All Might tells him once more.

“You’re right,” he manages with a raspy whisper, feeling his facial muscles spasm as pressure continues to build up, energy yearns to be released. There’s an urge to laugh as exhilaration courses through his veins and his pulse echoes in his ears. He hears rushing water.

_I won’t lose hope anymore_ , he thinks. The room suddenly regains its clarity. Izuku sees Eijirou. Kamoshida ignores him.

Izuku releases the energy.

With a high-pitched whistle, an invisible force spirals outwards, sending the dust on the ground flying, causing chains to rattle, causing the iron bars to chatter like teeth. Its very power releases Izuku from his vices, as his guards - struck almost point-blank - hit the floor. Eijirou is released in favour of his assailants attempting to remain fixed to the ground, and Kamoshida clings to his cape, one hand fixed on his crown.

“What the hell?” he snarls. “Guards! Get up! Up!”

He reaches for a mask that he already knows is there. An itch to get it off overwhelms his senses, and hands reach up to tug at it, fingers shaking from anticipation, teeth clenching when he begins to feel a searing hot pain. It’s worse than ripping off a band-aid, worse than treating his burn wounds after school every few nights, worse than breaking all of his limbs off. It’s the same pain of ripping his own skin off.

Someone is screaming. Some part of him knows that the sound is his, but he feels amazing as fresh air hits his face and hot blood coats it instead.

Izuku’s vision is consumed by green flame. He allows it, lips stretching into a smile that hurts his cheeks.

_Prometheus_ , his mind croons.

He feels rejuvenated, reborn, when the flames part like a curtain and another wave of energy ripples out. Everyone else in the room slams against the opposite wall. Kamoshida attempts to crawl away, a bug that refuses to die, and Eijirou stares. He looks a little worse for wear, but he’s okay. His face is made pale by the light that fills up the otherwise dim area, and-

Ah, it’s coming from him. Izuku looks at his hands, which are now fitted in orange gloves, illuminated in electric green. He looks back at Eijirou.

“So manly…” he says weakly, jaw looking uncomfortably close to falling off. His eyes drill holes above his head. Izuku beams at his friend, feeling the company of Prometheus behind him, his aura emanating a sense of protection as he materialises into existence. A resonant voice follows, no longer contained in his mind, echoing as he announces his presence.

“I am Prometheus, bringer of fire and an insurgent of gods!” He proclaims, and for a split second, Izuku can see through another pair of eyes. He cannot believe that a part of his soul has the capability of manifesting into something of this scale. “I am the rebel’s soul residing inside you, and shall offer you the power to break through this crisis… if you so desire.”

“Give me your power,” Izuku instantly says, and he very rarely speaks with such conviction. From his own body, he looks up to see a hulking figure with deep-set eyes, enveloped in fiery-toned cloth with a lit torch clasped in one hand. Prometheus is somewhat humanoid, and pulses with power, breathes fire. He turns back around, suppressing the childish awe that threatens his composure.

From outside the cell, Kamoshida stands with a stony expression, though his posture reeks of uncertainty. His minions are scattered on the floor. On any other day, Izuku would take pity and tell him to run, but he hurt Eijirou.

“Who the hell are you?” the slimy bastard demands. “Guards!” The emotionless henchmen finally stand at his yelled command. His face collapses into a deranged smile, and Izuku thinks that he’s never seen such a sorry excuse for a hero. A finger points towards him, and the underlings are ordered to kill.

“Stay back, Eijirou,” Izuku tells the boy, and knows that confidence is on his side as he calls for One For All for a power supply. “This is technically self-defense, so I’m not feeling sorry!”

He’s strong. He’s powerful. He’s doing the right thing, fulfilling his own justice - Izuku’s not doing this to hurt or kill, but to protect.

_Isn’t that what heroes do, after all?_ Prometheus is impatient, so Izuku opens his mouth, buzzing on his feet. Electricity hums at his fingertips.

“Persona!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So!!!!! this chapter is a bit longer than i had planned it to be... oops there goes my plans of maintaining any semblance of consistency
> 
> We started off with some official plot bc i still want u guys to associate everything that’s going on with the events of the show :DD and then!!! Shit hits the fan (™)
> 
> I think kamoshida’s gonna be the only character from p5 in here think of it as an introduction ? ig?
> 
> Im sorry if you guys wanted izuku to have arsene, but it didn’t feel quite right,,, like arsene is a part of akira and it’d feel like putting him in the bnha world, dying his hair green and slapping the name izuku midoriya on him? But the good thing is this is letting my creative juices flow :D i had fun!!
> 
> I hope i did this awakening justice <3 are yall proud of me for actually updating this??  
> Thank you for all the love and support this fic has already gotten! It’s a lot of pressure because i also have very high standards and im scared that yall are just gonna be disappointed,,,,,,,,, oh well oh well
> 
> Next chapter: exploring eijirou’s character a bit earlier than the show - manga spoilers probably?
> 
> And before i go to bed: unsurprisingly this was written at 2 in the morning so pardon me if i make no sense goodnight my lovelies


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izuku finds someone he wants to save.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there are probably many many errors and awkward sentences? this was kinda hard to get off my chest because i was feeling really impatient about finishing up with the introductiony parts like yall ever feel like jumping straight into it....
> 
> PERSONA 5 SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY but you know how the phantom thieves have their ultimate personas, and how prometheus is futaba's? i really wanted to address this - the arcanas in this fic will not be assigned to the same personas in the actual game. i am still on the edge about making izuku's first persona a god, but i suppose his starting persona having so much potential power (imagine him being at like level 1 LMAO) means something? like how izuku himself started out with nothing and came out with All Might's quirk, but here he rlly be out here being blessed with what should be an ultimate persona lmao? it's up to you
> 
> i'm really awkward about interpreting fight scenes from the game, because it's literally the shadows and thieves taking turns right? not very realistic in real life so 
> 
> ALSO THIS CHAPTER IS LONGER THAN IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE AGAIN SORRY  
> edit: I HATE GOOGLE DOCS FORMATTING BURN IT WITH FIRE OH MY GOD

By harnessing Prometheus’ power, it takes little more than two waves of attacks to take down one of Kamoshida’s underlings, which both have transformed into jack-o-lanterns. Izuku doesn’t really get it, but he rolls with it, figuring that things not making sense will be a recurring theme.

It does take a little more concentration to avoid involving Eijirou in the crossfire, but his Persona - something he thoughtlessly called out that instantly stuck - not only provides, but guides him. Once the pure instinct has worn off, words of advice are fed into his thoughts. Prometheus shares a part of his mind with him; he is, after all, a part of him, and Izuku has known this since those words of a contract were uttered.

_I am thou, thou art I._

He’s unsure of how he does it exactly. When the first guard is knocked down, his arms are miraculously unbroken. It’s not the first thing he expects, as he only uses his quirk out of carelessness and a trust in an unknown entity to prevent the backlash. The strength that One For All provides doesn’t seem to concentrate in a specific location, but instead spreads out evenly like a suit of energy. He briefly stares at his fallen enemy in plain wonder, and a voice laughs in his ears.

_You have a great power. You simply lack an understanding of how to exploit it in a manner that your body can handle._

“Stop standing there!” Kamoshida orders. “Incompetent fools - attack that boy!”

Izuku grins, feels it as Prometheus hands the reins of his quirk back to him, and flies out towards the second animated pumpkin with readied fists. He can move.

 _Don’t thank me,_ Prometheus continues to speak as he observes Izuku swerve away from a swing of a lantern, eyes widening at his unexpectedly high reflexes. _Everything is based off pure cognition. Your mere belief is what protected you from your own power, regardless of the technique you applied. Though I do believe something else helped you with that._

Understanding dawns on him. Had he gone into the attack with reservations, with the expectation of coming out with yet another injury, it would have proven true. If that’s how things work around here, this could prove to be a blessing or a curse in the future.

_It all comes down to yourself._

Prometheus then retreats to the far corners of his perception, and Izuku swings with two consecutive punches. The creature before him sputters, the light in its eyes flickering out, and dissipates into nothing below his feet.

He could get used to this.

Izuku doesn’t feel the slightest hint of fatigue from the battle, and almost feels bad for the decimated beings. He doesn’t know what they’re called - Prometheus is silent - but they’re kind of cute. He’s never seen anything like it, but then again, one of his classmates has a bird head.

“You!” Kamoshida storms up to him. “How dare you defy my will? I’ll have you-”

He collapses with a shout, revealing Eijirou’s hardened fist. The boy must have moved across the room when Izuku wasn’t looking, and snuck up behind the approaching hero.

“Thank you,” Izuku says genuinely, watching the man as he struggles to lift himself up with disdain. His crown sits not too far away. It feels strange, but if Prometheus says that everything is based off cognition and the figure’s uncharacteristically golden eyes tells him anything, he has reason to believe that this isn’t the real Pro Hero Asmodeus. The real one never gave him a reason to respect him, anyway - he always seemed to carry a pride too big for his own good.

That leaves the reason behind the existence of this place, as well as how exactly it exists. Does it have a purpose?

He jumps back when Kamoshida stands, looking murderous, and Izuku realises that he’s not quite in the mood to fight even more battles. He’d rather run, but the man doesn’t seem willing to let him. Knocking him out is an option, but real or not, he doesn’t have the heart to do that, so he exchanges glances with Eijirou, who directs his attention to the door. He makes a break for it. Izuku quickly follows, sliding the door shut behind him, squealing as the cognitive Kamoshida stumbles forward.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry,” he chants to himself. He fumbles with the lock, hearing the satisfying click, and steps away. Only a few centimetres away, but separated by iron bars, the cloaked man rattles the barricade with both fists.

Thank god he locked that in time. Izuku tries not to show how unnerved he feels, wiping his hands on his pants.

“Get me out!” the man spits. “Right this instant!”

“No way,” Eijirou responds weakly. He slowly backs away, minding the sound of rushing water from behind him, as if soothing a distressed animal.

When he feels his heartbeat return to normal, he feels his gloves disintegrate from his hands. Feeling his tie, he knows he’s back in his UA uniform, which means Prometheus has disappeared, merely an ever-constant presence in his mind. With his outfit gone, his remaining energy begins to sap out of his body, and this doesn’t go unnoticed by Eijirou. His friend takes his arm, wrapping it around his shoulders. Izuku leans into his touch. “Dude, that was badass.”

“Those guards weren’t very strong,” Izuku admits. “It was weird, like they were just waiting for me to make a move. I have a feeling Kamoshida’s gonna think of us as bigger threats now, though.”

Eijirou groans at the implication. “Man, I’m beat.” Izuku remembers that his friend had been manhandled rather roughly back there.

“Are you okay?”

He shifts with a hum. “Yeah, you?”

“Tired. We need to figure out how to get out of here,” he sighs.

“Yeah,” his friend affirms. “We should do it soon. I have a feeling Kamoshida’s not gonna stay in that prison cell for long.” Judging by the amount of noise the trapped Pro Hero is making, he concurs.

Disregarding the sounds in the background, Izuku pulls out his phone with his free hand, which is thankfully still in his blazer pocket. “I’m gonna see if we can just leave from here.” Entering the app, he notices with disappointment that the option to leave isn’t available. “Ah, we can’t... Either we find a room that lets us leave or we find the exit.”

“Keep that open as we walk around. We could find something,” Eijirou suggests. “I don’t really know where to go, though - should we just walk down there?”

Izuku squints at the direction he’s indicating, seeing a gateway at the end of a path lined with moss. The area is dull and poorly lit, with rotting wooden beams supporting the ceiling above them. Rushing water separates the pair from the other side of the area, which displays empty jail cells.

“Yeah. I think I can walk, don’t worry.” Their brief moment of rest is enough for now - he just needed a breather. He pats his shoulders, realising that his bag is missing. “Wait, my bag!”

Eijirou notices the absence of his own. “Damn, I forgot! Those assholes must’ve taken them after they knocked me out, too!”

“Maybe we’ll see them when we look around?” Izuku suggests, resigned. His friend groans.

“Yeah, I guess. I mean, it’s only got my school stuff, but still…”

 _My hero notes_ , Izuku mourns, and the pair begin their escape.

.

They do find their bags, but it takes a little longer to find a way to leave. The castle is swarming with unfriendly-looking creatures, and it takes a painfully long time to sneak around them, and they haven’t even left the dungeons yet. It also doesn’t help that neither of them know where they’re going. Izuku can’t help but wish that a guide would magically appear out of nowhere and help them. Even a map would be wonderful!

They move in silence, and the atmosphere is made unsettling by the faint sounds of screaming. Izuku knows they aren’t the only prisoners, but they can’t afford to loiter for longer than necessary. After one particularly long yell, he holds Eijirou back with a knowing look. He grits his teeth, but moves on with downcast eyes. Izuku doesn’t do this without any guilt - in fact, he’s holding himself back from investigating. The side of him that’s brash, curious and selfless tells him to save them, but the logical side to him wins for the first time that day. It’s also possible that the screams aren’t from real people. It’s likely.

“They’re not real,” he mutters to Eijirou, barely managing to convince himself.

“I know,” the boy assures. “It just sucks. I hate hearing this!” he hisses, and Izuku knows.

They move on, ducking into rooms and checking every corner, until an empty room catches Izuku’s eye. The walls are lined with torches, the smoke giving off hints of purple, and an entrance to a ventilation shaft sits amongst the bricks. What looks like burglar bars prevents them from going through, but that shouldn’t be an issue. He prods Eijirou.

“Could you see if you can knock that off the vent?” he inquires, watching his friend perk up.

“Hell yeah!” the red-eyed male says, loudly enough for Izuku to wince. He confidently climbs up a set of empty shelves in order to reach it, pulls back a hardened fist, and the rusted bars collapse with a ringing clang. “We’re free!” he cheers, chest puffed out, and begins to climb in.

“Please keep the celebrations for when we’re actually free,” Izuku pleads, looking around anxiously as he closes the door to the room, faintly hearing the approaching sound of footsteps. He puts his phone in his pocket once more, jumping up the shelf. “Go, just go in, go go _go_ -”

“I’m going, _jeez_ -”

After what feels like an eternity of crawling through the dark vent shafts, the cool surface they’re on seems to melt into nothingness, and the presence of the sound of cars rushing by fills Izuku with an overwhelming relief. He blinks away the odd edge to his vision that he hadn’t noticed in the castle before. Did they just get… ejected from the castle without using the app?

“You have returned to the real world. Welcome back,” his phone tells him unhelpfully.

“Oh, finally…”

“Act normal,” Izuku tells Eijirou, who rubs his eyes and looks around in wonder. “I don’t think anyone noticed us appear.” Even if they did, they’d likely attribute it to quirk use. They do get a few stares for their UA Uniform, however.

A glance at the sky tells Izuku that they’ve been in the castle for a few hours; it’s just starting to get dark. He lets out a bone-deep sigh, before his phone blows up with notifications, causing his expression to quickly shift into a wince. His mum’s probably worried, considering that they’ve been gone for longer than expected.

“Can I stay at your place, dude?” Eijirou asks suddenly. “I… we gotta talk about that! I can’t hold it in!”

“What? Huh?” Izuku forces his mind to slow down. “Well… sure, if your family’s good with it. My mum won’t mind.” His first sleepover in years!

A grin that reveals his sharp teeth is his reward. “Awesome! I’ll text my mum. You need to tell me what happened back there.”

“I will!”

“Like, everything.”

Izuku snorts. “Okay, everything.”

The train ride back is silent, with both boys needing to sleep off the failure of an investigation in that castle, Izuku frantically attempting to calm down his storm of a mother, and the Japanese tending to favour silence in trains anyway. She has all the right to be worried, so he’s not annoyed (but he’s guilty, knowing that all of his recent activities have been taking years off her lifespan) and apologises profusely. She’s predictably fine with the impromptu sleepover - her texts failing to hide the sudden shift into excitement that she experiences.

His mother’s known about the bullying for years. Izuku knows that. He’s seen the look on her face in his youth once Kacchan had stopped coming over, and her son started coming home with injuries and a fake, wobbly smile. Inko Midoriya really is trying her best - no, she’s not perfect, and Izuku recalls his appointment with his doctor, and he knows he won’t ever forget her words when he was diagnosed as quirkless - but she loves him, and he feels lucky to have her.

She’s going to be so embarrassing when she sees Eijirou. Izuku wouldn’t be surprised if she starts crying.

He smiles to himself once the conversation’s over, leaning back and closing his eyes. He’s nervous about having Eijirou over, fearing the moments of awkwardness that occur between people who don’t know each other well, but he knows by now that the boy isn’t judgemental or rude. Any reservations about his character were ripped into shreds the moment Eijirou’s concern over his well-being had led him to willingly sacrifice his own. He definitely showed a new side to his personality in that prison cell. Izuku doesn’t think it’s bad, but a few words that his friend said in particular were concerning.

“Man, am I useless or what?” Man, if that doesn’t remind him of the things Kacchan tries to tell him constantly. The smile on his face turns dark.

He reminds himself to do something about that tomorrow. Opening his eyes, he sends a quick text to Uraraka. This doesn’t seem to be something that can be fixed in a day, but he hopes it’ll help.

The nervousness eventually turns to excitement when he leads Eijirou home, his friend humming to himself despite the exhaustion that weighs down his eyelids and the yawns that punctuate the passing of a minute. Izuku shakes his head at him, allowing himself to feel fully relaxed around the other.

.

Apparently, he feels relaxed enough to forget about the All Might posters that cover the entirety of his walls.

Prometheus laughs at him. Eijirou cooes at the sight. His bright red hair now lies flat against his head, still damp from his shower.

Izuku puts his hands in his head. “I can’t explain myself.” He wants the floor to disappear beneath him.

“It’s cool!” Eijirou says in protest, unabashedly peering closer at the merchandise decorating the room. “It shows how passionate you are. I’ve got some stuff for Crimson Riot, too.” Izuku peeks out from in between his fingers at his genuine tone, watching his friend explore his room with burning cheeks. The redhead respectfully avoids touching anything, which is something he appreciates. Some of those are limited-edition, and even considering their possibility of being damaged leaves him devastated.

“Crimson Riot? Is it because he has a hardening quirk?” Izuku questions softly. He makes his way to his bed, tossing his slippers to the carpet with his feet, sitting on the edge. A natural pull from his place of comfort, enhanced by his katsudon-filled belly, gives him an urge to lie down and fall asleep then and there, but that would be rude towards Eijirou. He thinks he can hold out until bedtime.

His friend doesn’t turn around. “Oh, yeah! That, and also…” Izuku tilts his head as he watches him sheepishly scratches the back of his neck. “He’s the one who inspired me to be a fearless hero. I’m still working on it, but…” he turns around, meeting Izuku’s eyes. “You could say he’s my All Might.”

Eijirou’s smile is gentle, his eyes shining with determination. It’s not the same confidence Izuku’s seen on his face in school. It feels raw, even more genuine.

“You do remind me of him,” he tells his friend, who laughs and crosses his arms.

“Really?” Hope and doubt line his words. Izuku’s starting to think the conversation’s becoming a little more personal than it seems.

“Well, for one, you both say ‘manly’ a lot,” he feels himself grin, a silly little expression, and Eijirou’s responding laughter tastes sweet. His expression then changes, and he points a finger at Izuku.

“Wait, you’re still not off the hook yet! Tell me what the hell that was!”

“You mean Prometheus?” Izuku clarifies, feeling the Persona stir upon the mention.

“Yeah, dude! He looked so manly! And muscular!” Eijirou frowns to himself. “Your outfit changed, too - and that mask, made you look like a bunny - looked like it hurt, ripping it off- blood literally went SPLASH-”

“Eijirou!” Izuku whines, trying not to guffaw at his antics. “Went splash, he says-”

“Sorry, sorry.” He pulls out Izuku’s chair from his desk, sliding onto it with a satisfied sigh. He stares at him expectantly.

Uncomfortable by his attention, he looks at his hands, wrapping his arms around his pillow. He takes a deep breath, attempting to recollect his thoughts, everything he knows.

“Well… sorry, I’m about to start rambling. What you saw there was me getting my Persona. I don’t know much about it yet, but he - Prometheus - told me that he’s basically a part of my spirit. The part that’s, like, rebellious? It’s interesting because the representation of my rebellious spirit is Prometheus, a Titan who brought fire to humankind in Ancient Greek mythology and was punished by Zeus, and he’s known to be a trickster who’s quite clever-”

“Wait, wait wait,” Eijirou cuts in, his evident confusion snapping Izuku’s mouth shut. “Sorry, but what? You’re telling me your Persona is a god?”

“You’d call him a Titan technically, but yes and no?” Izuku rests his chin on his pillow. “Not the actual guy, he’s just based- well, his existence is based off everyone’s collective cognitions of Prometheus, and he’s mainly depicted like that.” He can see the cogs turning in Eijirou’s head, and takes that as his cue to continue. “Er, so anyway, he gives me powers? I still don’t quite understand them yet, but they helped me defeat those guards.” He furrows his brow. “I could use One- my quirk to enhance them, because my it’s, in the simplest sense, an amplifier. Like… I’m not sure what it was, but I couldn’t do much else. It’s really powerful, though.”

Eijirou nods along. “So it’s not quirk related?”

“I really, really don’t know,” Izuku sighs. “I don’t know if it’d be easier or harder to understand if it is quirk related. All I know is that everything’s apparently related to cognition. That Asmodeus we met back there? Not real. I can’t tell if he looks and acts that way because so many people hate him so much, or if he’s really like that. It depends on the reason why that castle exists, which, again, I don’t know.” Izuku repeatedly clenches and unclenches his hands, watching the movement of his tendons. “You know how my quirk hurts me since I’m still trying to control it? It didn’t hurt me at all, because apparently I just believed enough for it to work without making me explode everywhere. That also helped me learn how to use it in a way that might help in the real world - I still haven’t tried it, but I’m testing it out as soon as possible.”

 _I didn’t have to think about controlling the percentage or anything_ , he thinks to himself. Even though that was probably around 8 percent, which is already a huge jump from before, he hadn’t been thinking. Maybe what also helped was the fact that he didn’t treat One For All as something special - he just used it. He supposes he’s been using the wrong mindset about his given quirk the whole time.

How’s he going to explain this to All Might? Should he tell him about the castle, or act as if he simply had an epiphany overnight, heeding Aizawa’s words about his quirk hurting himself?

His friend startles. “Wait… right before you… got your Persona,” he starts.

“Yeah?” Izuku scrunches up his nose at the memory of Eijirou being held down and beaten. “Wait, are you sure you’re okay from that? It seemed like they were getting past your hardening.”

“Oh! Yeah, when we got back to the real world any pain I felt like… disappeared almost completely,” Eijirou frowns, rolling up his sleeve - a shirt Izuku graciously loaned to him for the night - and checks for any bruises, finding none. “Anyway, about that - I didn’t know why, but it felt like my quirk wasn’t as effective as normal. So my belief in my quirk…” The look on his face tells Izuku that he regrets ever bringing it up. He schools his expression into one that is as neutral as possible, concealing the sadness that begins to creep in.

 _Eijirou doesn’t believe in his own quirk?_ Izuku doesn’t understand. That hardening’s perfect for both self-defence and combat. He knows, though, that it isn’t always that simple.

For him… he feels like his younger self would kill to get a quirk like that. Bringing that up right now, though, probably isn’t going to help much. He needs a little more time. A few moments of heavy silence pass, before he decides to change the subject.

“What did my outfit look like?” Izuku inquires, because he really is curious about that. He senses the gratitude that the other sends to him. His friend jumps at the opportunity, as if he’d been refraining from gushing about it for the entire evening.

“Before you ripped it off, you had a mask, and it was just white with two weird bits sticking out? Like ears. I don’t know why that made me think of a bunny.” Eijirou purses his lips as he thinks. Izuku elects to ignore the last sentence. “You had a white shirt with a really high collar, and a green suit vest that was almost blue. The buttons were so weird. They reminded me of those detective trench coats.” Izuku tries to imagine himself wearing what the other describes, and it already sounds eccentric. It could even be his hero outfit, if he was going for a different aesthetic, like a stage performer. “You had a cape! It looked so cool, and it was… reddy-orange,” he says eloquently. “So were your gloves! And boots! Oh yeah. I could see your bare shoulders. I think your shirt was long-sleeved, though, and your cape was split into two parts. It could honestly pass off as a hero outfit.” Izuku’s thought process is mirrored at the last sentence. He doesn’t know what to say.

“Wow,” he says.

“Yeah,” Eijirou contributes with a dopey smile. “And, man, you acted so different! I know Yaoyorozu lowkey called you reckless in the battle trials, but you were reckless all caps! And so confident, like I was wondering if it was really you!”

Izuku remembers his strange attitude, mentally conjuring a depiction of him striking a stupid pose in his Persona-wielding garb. “I think I got caught up in the moment,” he admits.

“It’s like, your alter-ego,” Eijirou muses. “I want a Persona, too!”

“It… hurt a lot. I don’t even know why I got it. Maybe my emotions were just that intense,” Izuku thinks out loud. “I hate to say this, but we should go back in there soon.” He stops for a few seconds. “Maybe not get thrown into a prison cell again.”

“That’s a good idea,” his friend agrees, shuddering at the reminder. “We’ve come this far, might as well continue. I feel like we’ve been thrown in there for a reason, you know?” He yawns, raising a hand to his mouth. Izuku notes that he’s also beginning to feel a little drowsy himself, and thinks that they’re both due for an early bedtime.

“You wanna get ready for bed?” He hauls himself up, padding to the door. “We’ve got a spare toothbrush.”

“Awesome.” Eijirou gets up and stretches, cracking his back. After they brush their teeth and say goodnight to Izuku’s mum, who wishes them to sleep well with soft eyes, they agree to share a bed since the house doesn’t have any spare futons.

It takes a little time, but Izuku stops pressing himself against the wall so stiffly. He hasn’t done this since he was a literal child, and being in such close proximity to another person - other than his mother - understandably flusters him. Eijirou doesn’t care, and appears quite comfortable.

Izuku stares at his dark ceiling, feeling sleep reaching out and dragging him under, but something continues to niggle him. “Eijirou?” he calls lowly.

“Yeah?”

He shifts slightly to face his friend, who lies serenely with closed eyes. “I think you’ll be a great hero.”

The redhead’s breath hitches lightly. Izuku can barely see his eyes open. “You, too?” he replies, sounding confused at the sudden compliment.

“I mean it,” Izuku insists, and turns back around. “Goodnight.” Eijirou lets out a long exhale.

“Goodnight.”

It’s none of his business, really, but…

Izuku really, really wants to save him.

.

“Tell me if you need anything!” he calls out lightly, voice raised over the sound of running water. After hearing Eijirou’s faint agreement, he walks back to his room, placing his phone on the charger. He goes over his text messages, answering a few, before exiting the app and tapping on the MetaNav. His fingers shake slightly, heart pounding, like he’s doing something forbidden.

The shower continues to run. He takes a deep breath.

“Eijirou Kirishima,” he enunciates, pressing his eyelids shut.

“Target not found,” his phone responds, and he doesn’t know why the consolation that arises from these words almost pushes him to the floor. He doesn’t even know what the castle means, so why is he so glad that Eijirou doesn’t have one?

He just doesn’t like imagining him acting like Kamoshida did. His brain provides Eijirou’s face, albeit with a twisted smile and golden eyes, and he shudders.

“Izuku Midoriya,” he tries with a quivering breath, only to be met with the same result. Alright. Cool. He counts to ten in his head, exits the app and shuts his phone off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's something to think about: i almost gave eijirou a palace. i later thought that one that would be extremely inconvenient for the plot, becuase izuku will then have to deal with kamoshida himself unless he drags someone else with him, and eijirou's gonna be like D: no D: uhh and also i don't think his distortion is strong enough for it. he's at least been able to pursue his dream, and not everyone with insecurities will necessarily develop a palace. i'm not downgrading his issues at all - i'm trying to address them and give him ALL the love and validation he deserves - but this is just how it is.
> 
> yall mustve noticed that there's no morgana-ish figure ! don't worry, izuku's getting a guide (because no matter how smart he is, the metaverse isn't something you can completely understand by yourself hell even goro akechi couldn't?) but it's been a whole journey figuring out how. i always personally thought characters like kuma from p4 and morgana don't,,,,, rlly make sense,,,,,, even though i understand the reasons given behind their existence enough,,,,, and writing in a character like that would feel too awkward for me D: sorry
> 
> thank you for reading <3 sorry for any errors i don't have the energy to reread 4k words right now hehe


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the usj happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haikyuu’s manga is ending and ive been sitting here being sad about it omg hinata n his gang really pulled me through 2017 and 2018 it feels so weird to look back on it now when the fandom’s begun to die down a little
> 
> hi hello this took longer because believe it or not i was procrastinating writing the usj incident ha ha ha ha ha (but for some reason it ended up being my longest chapter yet)
> 
> PLEASE READ!!!! Trigger warning - description of blood and gore? kinda

Izuku had been looking forward to the next day. A trip to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint - U.S.J for short, which misled some of his classmates into believing that they were heading to Universal Studios for a day off at a theme park, despite having returned permission slips for the trip. Iida, recently crowned as the new class representative by Izuku, popped more than one vein in an attempt to organise the seating plan on their bus, only to realise its futility when he saw its layout.

Class 1-A was buzzing with excitement. Several conversations occurred at once, occasionally punctuated by Kacchan’s explosive outbursts and roaring laughter. Izuku had lagged behind, resulting in the seats near Eijirou being taken, so he opted for a place next to a quiet boy with a peculiar, yet charming appearance, with half of his hair being a deep red and the other a pure white.

His name is Todoroki Shouto. Izuku debated asking if he was a bilateral chimera, or if his appearance was related to his quirk somehow, but when he requested for permission to take the seat next to him - and, oh, he has heterochromia - the other’s dark stare whittled him into silence. He felt something unpleasant in the boy’s stiff composure and stone-cold expression, felt it even through the screen as he watched him during the battle trials, and left him alone for the journey.

A few were more disappointed than others when the school bus pulled up to a vast, dome-shaped training facility. The disappointment soon turned into horror once the first villains began spilling out, and it sunk in that it wasn’t part of the exercise. Aizawa and Thirteen, one of the supervisors for the day, were unable to do anything but watch as their students disappeared into the mist.

Izuku is in the flood zone, the reality of the situation making him light-headed, barely registering the water dripping down his face. He really can’t seem to catch a break. Though, really, he should have known - the break-in yesterday couldn’t have just been the work of the reporters. Those villains infiltrated the school for information.

Tsuyu, the girl with a frog mutant quirk who insisted on referring to her by her first name on the bus, is with him, pressing against cold walls as they back away on a swaying boat that is utterly surrounded by villains in the water. A blubbering boy named Mineta explains the use of the sticky balls that grow on his head, and Tsuyu is calm through her explanation of her own quirk, though Izuku feels her hidden anxiety.

Who are these villains? What do they want? Izuku looks out, and their gleeful appearances are completely forgettable to him. This is definitely the work of an organisation, a group, and they have plenty of minions at their disposal. Individually, Izuku thinks he could hold his own, but they’re dangerous in numbers. He half-heartedly tries to call out for his Persona, though his presence is predictably too dull to manifest in the real world. It probably wouldn’t be best to reveal Prometheus to his peers, anyway.

Where’s Eijirou? Is he okay? He gulps, and then remembers that they don’t have enough time to be worrying. He’s wasted enough of it.

_Is everyone else okay?_

“Your quirk is suitable in conditions like these, right?” Izuku confirms, and Tsuyu lets out a ribbit. He finds it quite endearing.

“Yes, my frog characteristics give me an advantage.”

He doesn’t recall Aizawa or Thirteen giving them permission to use their quirks on the villains, but Izuku feels that they can’t help it in a situation like this. _What would be the easiest way…?_

He could use his quirk to escape, but that would mean abandoning Tsuyu and Mineta. He’s also not sure if he feels like explaining how he suddenly learned a new skill overnight.

“I have a plan,” he conveys rapidly, nervously adjusting his sports uniform. “That confirms something - they teleported us to completely random locations. They don’t know what our quirks are, so they decided to disorient us by separating each other.” At least they have that going for them. Their lack of knowledge can be used to their advantage. “However, these villains look suited towards water, so they must know the layout of the facility.”

Mineta cries freely, openly expressing his fear, and Izuku warily glances at the ever-so-steadily approaching villains, making no attempt to console his classmate. “Listen to me,” he says shakily, suddenly hyper-aware of the attention of the other two, “we need to regroup, so this is how we all get out of here. I’ll create a whirlpool, and then Mineta will use his quirk to stick to the villains in the water. Hopefully they’ll all be rounded up, and Tsuyu- Tsuyu, you use yours to help us escape-”

A loud crash rattles Izuku’s bones, and the boat tilts, alerting the trio as liquid sprays onto the deck, harshly peppering their faces. From his peripheral, a large hand collapses back into the body of water below them, and the boat groans, split cleanly in half. Mineta screams.

“We should just sit quietly before they kill us!”

“Really, did you come here to be a hero?” Tsuyu complains with a croaky voice, eyeing the snivelling boy with disdain.

“It’s weirder to not be scared right now!” Mineta defends. “Shut up!”

Izuku grits his teeth at his screeching. “Stick to the plan, stick to the plan,” he pleads. The floor beneath them begins to tilt, and he grabs onto the rail, crouching away from the view of their assailants. “They think they’ve got an advantage. We’ll catch them off guard this way.”

“I’m seriously getting impatient!” a foreign voice grouches. He knows, if the sudden attack on their only means of avoiding the villains is anything to go by - they can’t afford to linger, not when the vessel is threatening to collapse.

 _I trust you, Tsuyu_. “I’m doing it!” he hisses, and hauls himself up, climbing onto the rail with his heart in his throat. He’ll have to concentrate his power in order for this to work, so he worries at his lip, concentrating, concentrating, concentrating. The rail is a springboard, and he leaps into the air with a scream, hearing Mineta’s protests and feeling Tsuyu’s watchful gaze as he braces himself, air whistling past his skin. The water comes closer, closer, closer, and the villains stare, dumbfounded, unaware of what they’re preparing for.

_Imagine… the egg not exploding!_

“That’s a dumb kid. Let’s rip him apart once he hits the water.”

Heat rushes to his fingertips, his eyes watering from the wind, and he stabilises his arm with his other gloved hand.

“Delaware Smash!” he hollers, an image of All Might flashing in his vision, and releases with a flick of his fingers, the world around him spiralling when the surge of energy sends him flying back in the air. He tries not to hyperventilate at the thrill, closing his eyes. He hears the water lurch upon impact. Something wraps itself around his torso, splashes repeatedly entering his hearing like a metronome, and _don’t think about it you’re safe Tsuyu’s tongue is strong enough_. Mineta’s screaming, again, from somewhere near him. Izuku squints, watching the villains getting sucked in, unable to fight against the currents.

“What the hell is this?”

“I can’t get it off!”

“Get out of my way!”

They disappear, and the water violently reacts, shooting into the air like a geyser. Izuku lands safely on land next to Tsuyu and Mineta, and his knees buckle.

“Oh” - he gasps, bringing shaking hands his cheeks - “my _god_.”

“That was incredible.” Tsuyu praises, her voice ever-so-monotonous, but her wide eyes sparkle. Mineta looks like he’s about to pass out, blood trickling down his head.

“Thank you for catching me,” he answers, remembering the sensation of basically free-falling.

Tsuyu nods. “Of course,” she croaks. Mineta sniffs. The three fall into silence for a brief moment, scouting out the area with cautious eyes.

“We need to find the others,” Izuku says after recovering his breath. He still feels lightheaded, having flown through the air. His finger’s starting to throb, too, but the dull pain isn’t anything he can’t handle. Disappointment weighs him down - he couldn’t avoid injury after all. His body still can’t sustain concentrated attacks. He needs more time to adjust to All Might’s quirk, it seems.

 _Your quirk_ , Prometheus almost scolds. _You’re still thinking about it wrong._

“Right.” Izuku looks back, ashamed. The flood zone is awfully calm, though the boat looks a little worse for wear. Another minute and they would have sunk with it.

“Did we kill them?” Mineta enquires tremulously.

“We didn’t,” Tsuyu says with a croak.

“Yeah,” Izuku sighs. “We need to go back, now. I don’t know how long Aizawa-sensei can last by himself. If what they said about being able to defeat All Might is true, too...” The other two follow his gait, keeping an eye out for any lingering villains, One For All thrumming under Izuku’s skin through the whole way.

“But they can’t kill All Might!” Mineta protests. “He’s gonna come and save all of us.”

Tsuyu instantly butts in. “They have something planned, don’t they? If they didn’t actually believe they could kill All Might, they wouldn’t risk being defeated once he shows up.”

Izuku says nothing, pleading to his mentor in his mind. When is All Might going to arrive? Is Aizawa still fighting by himself?

 _“A Pro Hero isn’t a one-trick pony,”_ his teacher had told him, before jumping down, effectively ending the conversation. Aizawa knew that he’s eventually going to run out of time. Izuku knows that he knows.

The facility is too big for him to see the rest of his classmates, but he hopes that they’re all okay.

They have to be.

.

“Be _quiet_ ,” Izuku hisses to Mineta for the third time. The branches shift next to him, and he sinks lower into the bush with narrowed eyes. Every inch of him screams to jump out and defend his teacher, but he knows that, really, he’s nothing more than a liability in the current situation. Aizawa doesn’t need any distractions. They were debating whether to lure some of the villains away in order to make it easier for their teacher, or to evacuate and contact their school, but…

He hates sitting there and watching. Aizawa doesn’t seem to be struggling too much, thankfully, but Izuku can see the fatigue that threatens to creep in. He stares daggers into one of the more outspoken villains, the one with hands all over his body and dry skin who asserts himself as the ringleader. The very sight of him, watching and observing silently, is somewhat morbid. _Why the hands?_

The villain, moved by an unknown force, immediately lashes out at Aizawa, dodging when the Pro Hero’s brandishes his capture weapon. While the encounter at the flood zone seemed to rush by in a way that almost escapes Izuku’s memory, time slows down. He sees the hand that reaches for his teacher’s elbow. He sees the skin disintegrate upon the villain’s touch.

Aizawa doesn’t flinch, but he distances himself. Izuku sees it coming, but his brain can’t catch up, and stares unseeingly when a large hand connected to an even larger villain grabs a mop of black hair.

Aizawa’s head hits the ground. The sound that escapes rings in Izuku’s ears. Horror freezes him, paralyses him - he wants to look away, but he can’t. The villain doesn’t stop there. His small, beady eyes remain unmoving from his exposed brain, and he does something to Aizawa’s arm that results in another sickening noise, letting out a screech that surely isn’t human.

His teacher fights to get up, to defend himself, to attack the villain, to do anything, but he looks small when the villain repeatedly sends his head into the ground. He doesn’t move.

Izuku wants to scream.

He doesn’t see Aizawa, rendered hopeless and immobile on the floor, doesn’t see the blood likely pooling below his body and staining his clothes. He sees Eijirou. He’s not in the Unforeseen Simulation Joint; he’s in that castle, deep in the damp, stale dungeons.

Except…

His eyes tear up with the realisation. He’s genuinely useless. He can’t do anything. He’s not going to awaken here, he can’t risk the lives of everyone here like this, he’s injured and his options are extremely limited. The situation is much more dire, because it looks like Aizawa - Pro Hero Eraserhead, teacher, his homeroom teacher - really is about to die. How many blows to the head can someone survive through?

He can’t give up, and he won’t. Losing hope now, after everything? Really, though, what can he do? Izuku’s so scared, terrified, in fact, but he’s determined.

Nobody’s dying today. He knows this, and he's ashamed of the way he simply sat there feeling sorry for himself. Just when he steels himself, the warp villain - the one behind the separation of all of his classmates - materialises next to the hands villain, who has stepped back to watch his teacher get pummelled into the ground with an air of indifference. Izuku feels like he’s getting dunked in and out of water, his senses fading at random intervals, and he forces himself to stay present for the sake of gathering information. Shigaraki, the hands villain is called Shigaraki, the warp villain is Kurogiri (a fitting name, really), he’s basically threatened by Shigaraki but pays no heed to his words, and one of the students have escaped.

Escaped. Good. Help must be on the way.

Thirteen is out of commission. Not dead, but injured enough. Izuku feels like he’s separated himself from everything around him, and that he’s merely watching through a screen. The shock that breaks that illusion, though, comes when Shigaraki is suddenly very close to him. His hand, he can disintegrate Aizawa’s elbow with his hand, his hand is outstretched, but it’s not aiming for him -

It’s aiming for Tsuyu, and cold flashes in his limbs, raising goosebumps on the back of his neck. She’s still, frighteningly so, as if staying unmoving will somehow deter the villain into retracting his hand. Her eyes are locked onto the hand that takes over her vision.

The screen shatters, because Izuku remembers that they’re not just spectators. They’re not safe, either. They’re targets, too.

“I wonder what’s going to happen if one of his precious students dies?”

Shigaraki touches her with all five fingers. An image flashes in Izuku’s mind, gruesome and nightmarish, where Tsuyu’s skin disappears and exposes muscle, and muscle falls away to reveal bone, and bone crumbles into nothing, and her screams fall silent and she collapses.

Nothing happens. The relief that hits him is cautious, but is enough for him to taste bile at the back of his throat. Aizawa’s head is raised, eyes flashing red and blending into the streams of blood that trickle down his face, his hair levitating.

“How impressive,” Shigaraki muses lowly. “Noumu.”

Aizawa’s head meets the ground once more. His body is still.

Izuku’s survival instincts are going haywire. His muscles complain from him crouching uncomfortably for so long, but he ignores the tingling sensation. Tsuyu could have died. She was centimetres away from death, an erasure quirk away from turning into dust. It could have been any of them - him, Tsuyu, Mineta.

Shigaraki now knows that they’re here. Perhaps he knew all along, and they’ve basically been at his mercy.

_All Might… please. Please be here. Please come. Please save us._

Before dread can swallow him whole, Izuku’s prayers are almost immediately answered, and their situation finally looks promising when the entrance bursts open, clouds of dust billowing outwards.

“Have no fear,” the Pro Hero’s face is uncharacteristically grim as he announces his presence, “for I am here.”

Nobody’s dying today. Shigaraki moves away, straightening.

“Ah. It looked like there was no use to continue, but…” He turns around. “It seems our objective has arrived.” The villain’s attention is no longer on them. Izuku lets out a silent sigh that’s been building up for a while, whilst mulling over the intruder’s words. This truly seems like a game to him.

All Might effortlessly takes out the minor villains near the stairs, and he’s suddenly there, holding Aizawa’s limp form in his hands. His eyes are shadowed by the harsh contours of his face, but Izuku feels the protective anger that he radiates. “Take Aizawa and head back to the entrance,” he says, glancing at a silent Shigaraki, who watches their exchange. “I’ll handle them.” The tone is assuring, but Izuku worries. The talks of having the means of defeating his mentor interfere in quelling his fears.

Shigaraki mumbles to himself. All Might carefully relinquishes his hold on Aizawa, and Izuku tries not to look at his teacher’s state as he takes him in his arms. “They said they can defeat you- and your limit-”

“It’s alright,” the blond hero tells him, understanding, and Izuku wonders if he really does know what he’s getting himself into. “Focus on getting yourselves out of here.” In any case, he doesn’t want to be a distraction or a hindrance, so he nods. All Might wastes no time in rushing towards the villain that Shigaraki refers to as Noumu, the villain that only acts on his orders. Izuku has a bad feeling, but exchanges meaningful looks with Tsuyu and Mineta, who shakily get up and follow him. As they walk to the stairs, he watches the fight with his balance centred on his toes. The Symbol of Peace strikes with a painful-looking blow, but the villain shockingly appears unaffected, retaliating without hesitation.

Izuku feels responsible for the safety of Tsuyu and Mineta, so he continues leading them away from the fight. Unease settles in his stomach, though, and he finds it harder and harder to suppress the urge to help. Usually, a single punch would be enough to defeat an opponent, but All Might isn’t even taking the lead. His fingers itch.

His mentor’s trademark smile doesn’t appear once.

“Tsuyu, could you take Aizawa for me?” He questions, eyes still fixed on the fight.

For someone who came extremely close to death, Tsuyu sounds relatively calm. “Sure, why?”

Izuku runs.

.

Eijirou arrives. So does Kacchan, and Todoroki.

Whilst All Might deals with the Noumu - Izuku doesn’t know what it is anymore - the hero students attack Kurogiri and Shigaraki. They eventually find success in subduing the former, and Kacchan pins him down with a snarl. Izuku is worried that his accomplice is going to lash out, but he merely sighs.

“You pinned down our door. How troublesome.” Shigaraki scratches his neck, observing the scene.

“Just as I thought,” Kacchan exclaims with a huff. “Got you, motherfucker. Why would you call any attack “dangerous” if your entire body is really just that mist?” His eyes narrow as the villain below him struggles. Izuku watches, dumbfounded. “Oi, twitch and I won’t hesitate in blowing you up.”

“Is that something a hero would say?” Eijirou grins, releasing the hardening on his arm to approach Izuku and pat him on the back. “Missed me?”

“I’m glad you’re safe,” Izuku says sincerely. Of course they’d be okay. “Was that a pun?”

The situation is rather odd. Shigaraki has had many opportunities to attack everyone and get it over and done with. Instead of using them, he opens his mouth to speak. “We recruit dozens of villains, ambush you all and separate you, yet you’re completely unscathed.” He scratches himself again, and Izuku notices how dry his skin appears to be. “Kids these days, really... “ The hero students listen to his complaints, bracing themselves. The villain turns to the Noumu, half-frozen thanks to Todoroki’s intervention. “Noumu” - the creature twitches - ”deal with that explosion boy. We need our door.”

That villain creature is full of surprises, because the ice covering its body cracks as it pulls itself up. Half of its body is missing, but it doesn’t even seem to notice or care.

“How is that moving?” Eijirou questions, horrified. Izuku shakes his head.

“Amazing, isn't it?" Shigaraki sounds gleeful. "It's because Noumu has a regeneration quirk, as well as a shock absorption quirk.” All Might furrows his brow, and yes, that makes sense, and it’s confirmed for Izuku when he sees muscles and tissue rapidly redeveloping at the creature's injury sites. No wonder his teacher’s attacks appear so ineffective. His expression remains unchanged, but Izuku can discern the uncertainty he feels. Not even the top hero can hide his shift from constant confidence.

Izuku can’t blame him. Nobody in the area - except for Shigaraki, perhaps - knows exactly what they’re dealing with. They can’t even confidently call the Noumu a human being, one with more than a single quirk, no less; it's almost impossible. It should be. Todoroki may seem to have two quirks, but it can more accurately be described as one split into two parts, balancing each other out like yin and yang.

(Its name is quite on the nose, with the male reluctantly calling his power ‘half-hot, half-cold’ during their self-introductions on the bus.)

(Izuku wondered why he never uses his left side, but if Tsuyu didn’t ask, he won’t. The girl is ridiculously perceptive, and if she can be considerate enough to stifle her curiosity, so can he.)

In any case, individuals only ever have one quirk. Period.

He’s heard that a human’s mind and body can’t handle too many quirks at once, if such a situation ever occurs. It depends on the person in terms of how many is enough to break them, but two can be enough. Maybe the Noumu has even more.

Time slows down during Izuku’s furious thought process, and speeds up once more when the Noumu lumbers towards All Might, causing him to open his mouth in a silent warning. The hero meets him half-way, steely determination once again evident in his tense grimace.

“It has shock absorption,” the hero begins, sounding winded, and everything clicks in Izuku’s mind simultaneously. “But that’s not shock nullification. Which means that I’ll just keep attacking until it reaches its limit!” A harsh breeze hits him, and he squints as All Might and his opponent literally disappear behind a whirlwind of motion.

He hears the hero counting to himself, watches as the number of punches goes higher and higher and higher. Eijirou gapes with eyes made of stars, Kacchan’s scowling, and Todoroki stares. Shigaraki observes with a hand desperately scratching the back of his neck, the eye that’s visible to Izuku threatening to pop out of its socket. Kurogiri is next to him.

Izuku saw the steam rising off All Might’s toned figure earlier, and knows that he’s reached his limit, which is the reason why he wasn’t originally with them in the facility in the first place. The man’s overdoing it. His eyes widen, hair blown out of his face. _Even though he’s bleeding, even when his body threatens to give out from overexertion, each and every punch is over one-hundred percent of his power._

The day All Might fails to astound Izuku, hell would have frozen over.

He watches as the Pro Hero throws the Noumu across the area, leaping after him with his muscles flexing under torn clothes. It gets up and wildly continues to send blow after blow into an awaiting All Might, and the fight never slows down, even when they roll onto the ground. The sight invokes a childlike wonder in Izuku, and he’s a child again, kicking his feet into the air as he watches his favourite hero fight on the television.

They’re flying in the air, the Noumu thrown to the ground, and the concrete shatters like glass underneath it. All Might lands in front of him safely, and Izuku has to steady himself when the earth shudders from beneath his feet.

Blue eyes twinkle. “Hey, villain. Have you ever heard these words?” All Might is smiling, the sight causing Izuku to feel one tugging at his own lips. His bulky figure approaches the struggling Noumu, then twists with a fist in the air.

Wind wraps around his arm. “Go beyond… Plus Ultra!” he roars, his arm disappearing into his enemy’s chest.

With one final surge of energy, a splatter of blood visible on his face, his punch sends the Noumu shooting off with a roaring explosion, smashing through the ceiling and disappearing from sight. The resulting shockwave disturbs the entire building, and Izuku almost mistakes it for an earthquake. His ears ring faintly. He stumbles, exchanging eye-contact with Eijirou as his teacher stands in victory.

All Might did it.

.

Midoriya stretches, flopping onto his bed with a groan. His mother was hysterical when she arrived to pick him up, and it took a while to calm her down, but soon enough he was eating dinner and sent off to bed early. It’s been a long afternoon, even after the attack that day - he stayed back to make statements to a detective, as well as to allow himself to be checked over for injuries.

The hero reinforcements stormed in after the Noumu's defeat, allowing All Might to rest. Izuku barely remembers what happened after the first gunshots that signalled their arrival rang out.

He pulls out his phone, opening up his message history with Kirishima. His plans with Uraraka fell through due to the unexpected circumstances, so he’s worried about his friend. Blinking wearily against the blue light, he types out a message with stiff fingers, nursing the one he had busted whilst escaping the flood zone. Recovery Girl did a good job on healing it, though he still instinctively avoids jostling it too much.

_You:_  
_Are you okay?_

Not too long after, he gets a reply.

_Eijirou:_  
_Yeah, got out with no injuries!_

_Unlike someone_

_You:_  
_:( just a finger !!!!! seriously!!!!!!_

_You mustve handled yourself pretty well though,_  
_huh_

_That move you pulled with Shigaraki was so_  
_cool even though it scared the heck out of me_

_Eijirou:_  
_Ahaha thanks wish it worked tho_

_Those minor villains were easy peasy_

_Bakugou and I took them out fine_

_You:_  
_Oh! You were with Kacchan?_

_Eijirou:_  
_Yepppp he was so hard to deal with_  
_at first but i got used to it? like i realised_  
_that’s just the way he is_

_What’s the Kacchan deal btw???_

_You:_  
_That sounds like him :’)_

_And we’ve known each other since we were_  
_kids, it’s my nickname for him_

_Eijirou:_  
_BRO_

_Awwwwwww really_

_You:_  
_Yup!_

Something dawns on Izuku, and he then opens up his history with Uraraka. There aren’t many texts between them, but he figures he should check up on her. Probably send a mass text out later to see if everyone’s okay.

_You:_  
_Hey! Are you doing okay?_

_Just checking up on you, since…. today_  
_was kinda scary, huh…._

He flits back to his messages with Eijirou, seeing the notifications at the top of his screen.

_Eijirou:_  
_Btw, you okay man?_

_Since we have the day off tomorrow I_  
_wanted to check out the castle again_

_Like….. you saw how Kamoshida-sensei_  
_was when he came in with the other_  
_teachers? idk if it was just me but he was_  
_kinda scary…. and the others didn’t seem_  
_to like him_

Izuku thinks back to when the rest of the teachers at their school arrived for backup. It was the first time he saw Kamoshida in person, and the man honestly acted pretty similar to his other self in the castle. He didn’t even use his quirk - from what Izuku saw, he was basically bossing around the other teachers, looking a little full of himself.

_You:_  
_You’re right… I don’t know how he was_  
_accepted into this school_

_I heard him talking about how this is_  
_gonna ruin the school’s reputation and stuff_  
_Midnight-sensei lowkey looked like she was_  
_going to knock him out_

_Eijirou:_  
_Yikes sounds like a real piece of work_

_You didn’t say if you’re okay, tho? should_  
_I come over???_

_You:_  
_AJSKLFJKE WHOOPS IM SORRY_

_NONON IM FINE HONESTLY LIKE DONT_  
_PUSH YOURSELF I KNOW YOURE TIRED_

_Physically, yes, mentally, i guess? How okay_  
_can you be after something like that, honestly?_

_There were things i could’ve done differently_  
_but there’s no point lingering one something that_  
_already happened. we can only move forward_

_Plus ! u know how i used my quirk in the castle?_

_I tried it, and it works!!!!! All Might-sensei was_  
_really confused cause i never did that before and_  
_usually using my quirk hurts me somehow but_  
_I said it was a spur in the moment thing, i didn’t_  
_really think about it_

In his attempts to cover up his possibly obvious attempts to send Eijirou a message, he probably talked a little too much. His message isn’t incriminating enough to raise suspicions of his relationship with their teacher, but he probably should be a little more careful. He winces, waiting for his friend’s response.

_Eijirou:_  
_Yoooo that’s epic :D i’m proud of you man_

_Why’d you even run in like that, though?_  
_All Might-sensei was fine wasn’t he?_

_Im confused about all that steam tho lol_

_You:_  
_I’ve been told i have a tendency to jump_  
_into situations without thinking lolol i don’t_  
_really know myself_

_I was just worried i guess, you know how i am_

_And idk either maybe it was just a reaction?_

_Like one time he used his quirk on a villain and_  
_it literally began to RAIN_

The steam was actually because All Might had run out of time, and he was beginning to transform back into his ‘civilian’ form. His muscles were already deflating before Cementoss-sensei put up a wall, and before Izuku batted an eye his teacher was a skeletal man, his clothes too baggy for his figure.

He won’t tell Eijirou that, though. He can’t. Maybe one day. He’s guilty about lying in order to keep a secret, but some things need to be kept away from others.

The redheaded boy doesn’t need to know that their Symbol of Peace is nearing the end of his time.

Finally, Izuku is alerted by a message from Uraraka. He abandons his conversation with Eijirou for a little while, silently apologising in his head.

_Uraraka:_  
_Ah, thank you so much!_

_I’m fine, what about you?_

_And Kirishima, i hope he doesn’t_  
_blame himself :(_

_We never got to talk to him today_  
_that boy needs a good lecture on_  
_how cool he is_

_You:_  
_I think he’s okay, and i’m doing fine, thank you!_

Izuku’s fingers hover above the keyboard. He chews his lip.

_I hope you don’t blame yourself either :)_

_Uraraka:_  
_I… wish I could’ve done more, but what_  
_can you do, haha_

_Seeing our sensei like that made me feel so_  
_useless!!!!! I felt so bad! but_

_I can only strive to imrpove and do better!_

_improve*_

_You:_  
_That’s the spirit! And i felt the same..._

_Anyway, goodnight! rest well!!!!_

_Uraraka:_  
_You toooooo!!! don’t get yourself injured_  
_again before school starts back up!_

_You:_  
_Urarakaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa_

_Uraraka:_  
_Sorry, sorry_

Feeling himself smile, he moves back to his texts with Eijirou. A few more, and he’ll go to bed.

_Eijirou:_  
_smh smh so reckless_

_really? Wahhh that’s so manly_

_All Might-sensei’s so manly_

_You:_  
_He’s seriously amazing *__*_

_Anyway, i have reason to believe that_  
_whatever the heck that castle is for, and_  
_that cognitive Kamoshida_

_Must be what he sees himself and the_  
_school as_

_Eijirou:_  
_A cocky bastard in his underwear?_

_You:_  
_no a king of a castle_

_Eijirou:_  
_lol he’s just a pe teacher wow_

_And damn… still confused about why_  
_It exists though_

_You:_  
_Then again, quirks exist_

_His perception of the school must be_  
_so crazy and distorted that it physically_  
_manifests_

_can cognition have a quirk?_

_Is this quirk related after all?_

_Is it magic?_

_Why does an app connect us to this castle?_

_Who’s behind all of this?_

_asjfhfidjhbwhfbhbfjhfjrhjhgj_

_Eijirou:_  
_big words bro my head cannot do this_  
_after such a long day_

_And i don’t want to think about it_

_Final verdict_

_You:_  
_Sorry, i ramble a lot :’)_

_Eijirou:_  
_No need 2 apologise bro it makes you_  
_specialllllll_

_You:_  
_Ahjshfhfjd stoppp_

_But in any case, we gotta figure this out_

_I think it’s bedtime for me now, goodnight!!!_

_Eijirou:_  
_Same im barely keeping my eyes open_

_Today was, no joke, the Worst_

_goodnightttttt_

Izuku giggles tiredly. When he finally closes his eyes that night, he tries to fall asleep before the thoughts consume him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did i mention that this is not beta read
> 
> I know this chapter took longer than expected, and it’s really just a filler :( i’m sorry y’all must’ve read millions of retellings of the usj incident ahh
> 
> At least we have a little original content! and the introduction of texting format! To make up for the break i had i wrote too much as per usual…… even though i ended up cutting out some stuff like holy hell i am not writing all mights entire monologue?? anyway happy new year everyone!
> 
> Side note: i had the hero kids introduce themselves on the bus since they couldn’t during orientation and i guess it's just a courtesy? they merely stated their full names and quirk names, which is why izuku had tsuyu and mineta explain their quirks more thoroughly during the attack
> 
> AHH i hated rewriting existing plot so much but it’s plot therefore it’s necessary in order for the pacing to not feel too crazy? I’ve been worried that my fic will make absolutely no sense to some people and i don’t want to confuse yall by having characters refer to Way Too Many things that were cut out
> 
> wow my authors notes are long enough to be stories outside of this fic i’m sorry? Next chapter will be less fillery and more metaverse funtimes since they’ve got the day off <33


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's their day off school following the U.S.J villain attack, meant to allow the students involved to rest and recover.
> 
> eijirou and izuku do not rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i had to edit a huge chunk of it bc i wasn't happy with it (spoiler alert i still ain't) so im sorry if there are mistakeeees <333333 not beta read!

There’s nothing, at first.

Then there’s faint music playing in the distance, gentle enough to lull someone into sleep. Instead, it alerts Izuku into opening his eyes, and he finds himself hunched over a desk with crossed arms.

If this isn’t a dream, he may have just been kidnapped in his sleep. A calm aura blankets him, but it feels like it’s choking. A quirk, perhaps, that soothes someone, dragging them into a false sense of security? When he digs his nails into his skin, he feels it. He’s far too self-aware for this to be a dream.

“Kiddo, you’re still asleep, don’t worry.”

Someone’s in the room with him. A woman. Her tone is warm, lined with amusement. Izuku finally lifts his head, blinking at his surroundings. 

He’s in his classroom at UA. It’s bathed in a wash of blue light that has no evident source, and the blinds reveal nothing past the windows. Not only that - everything is deep blue, including the tables and walls. Seated at the front of the room is a woman with black hair styled in a half-up, something that reminds him of his mother. With her cape and gloves, as well as her kind expression, she looks like a hero.

Izuku sighs weakly. “What is going on.” He’s overwhelmed with questions, and when that adds to his mental exhaustion from the previous day, his brain simply stops working. He can't even muster up the energy to panic, which would take more energy than usual, because it seems that this room absolutely insists on forcing him to feel calm, somehow.

The female laughs sympathetically. “Yeah, probably not the best time to appear, huh? Don’t worry, I’ll make it short.” She stands up, hands on her hips. “Call me Nana, kiddo. You’re in the Velvet Room - it serves a different purpose for different people, and it looks different for each person, but this is a place for you to receive guidance on your journey.”

Nana. That doesn’t really help, but at least he can put a name to her face. “So this is real?” Izuku frowns. “Wait, journey?”

“Only those who have made a contract can enter this room. It appears between dream and reality, as well as mind and matter,” Nana says cryptically. “Funnily enough, it seems you’ve visited earlier than expected. I wonder what kind of funny business you’ve been getting into.” She hums as Izuku feels a pull, drowsiness blurring his vision. “Oh, I’ve wasted too much time. Your answers will come, just be patient, alright?”

Izuku can’t fight it. His eyes close. “Wait, please,” he slurs. _ I have more questions. Please. _

“It’s time to wake up, kiddo. Stay safe,” Nana tells him, and her words are almost unintelligible because Izuku is too far away to hear her properly.

His eyes snap open, his phone’s alarm filling the silence of his bedroom. Sunlight soaks through the curtains. When he goes to silence his device, the music of the Velvet Room lingers.

If the room is related to Kamoshida’s castle and the app, Nana wouldn’t call his visit ‘unexpected’. Maybe it’s affected by it, though, since he had formed a contract of sorts with Prometheus. Izuku wonders if the room is intended for a different type of contract.

_ Just who is Nana?  _ The woman blended in perfectly with her surroundings, since her clothing was completely blue, and she definitely looked like she belonged. Is she its owner, or simply an attendant?

Izuku tries to remember as much as he can about her. Nana looked so youthful, but her eyes were jaded behind their sparkling exterior. Where was she before she was in the room? He grunts as he drags himself out of bed, feeling his joints creak. Hopefully he’ll have another visit soon, because he has a lot to say. For now, though, he gets ready in anticipation for solving another mystery: the castle.

  
  


_ You: _

_ I’m awake, will be there in an hour!! _

_ Eijirou: _

_ Morning sleeping beauty P: _

_ Helll yeahhhhhhh i’m pumped!!! _

  
  


Thanks to the villain attack, they’ve got the whole day to themselves. Izuku plans on using it, despite the fact that it’s meant to be a day of rest.

They meet in the same enclosed area as before. Eijirou looks more energetic than Izuku feels. 

“Hey man, got any sleep last night?” He peers at Izuku’s face, red eyes squinting. A frown decorates his face. “Bro, if you wanna do this another time…”

Does he really look that bad? “I’m fine,” Izuku defends. “I got some sleep, I’m fine.” He smiles when his friend pulls him into a side-hug, whines when Eijirou claps him on the back.

“In that case, let’s get going then.” Izuku enters the MetaNav with a nod. Before he begins their navigation, though, he asks something that’s been on his mind.

“Did you ever get this app on your phone?” he inquires, turning away when he sees someone pass by on the street. Eijirou shakes his head thoughtfully, pulling out his own phone to confirm.

“Nah, I haven’t,” he says, swiping through his applications with a disappointed pout. Izuku chews on the inside of his lip.

“Maybe you will, soon,” he suggests.  _ Why was I given this app, again?  _ “Okay, brace yourself.”

They head in.

.

The first few minutes are relatively uneventful. Izuku manages to retrace their steps until they find themselves, once again, lost in the maze of passageways. It’s hard and incredibly frustrating, especially since neither of them know exactly what they’re looking for. On top of this all, the uncomfortable feeling of being unwelcome creates a weight on their shoulders, and their movements are paranoid.

Izuku’s tired. They both are, and they reach a point where they stop caring if they had gone through the same way multiple times. Eijirou accidentally trips during one of their attempts to sneak past a group of soldiers in the dungeons, but they somehow aren’t caught.

“Hm?” Eijirou and Izuku both freeze. “I thought I heard something moving there. Guess it was my imagination…”

“What of the slaves?”

_ Slaves? _ Eijirou mouths at him, barely visible in the dim lighting. Izuku shakes his head in confusion. Was that the screaming they had heard last time?

“They’re all in the training hall,” someone says, startling Izuku. He peers out, watching the three converse lowly to each other. He has to seriously listen carefully to hear their next words. “I’d assume they’d be screaming in pain by now.”

“Any hero-in-training needs to be able to withstand that. They’re weak.”

Laughter. “By the way, I heard we may have intruders around. Stay on your guard.” With that, the three part ways, running off in different directions with readied swords and shields. Izuku ducks back further into the darkness, then sighs with relief.

“You heard that, right?” Eijirou hisses. “Training hall? Is he torturing students?”

“I hope not,” Izuku sighs. “Even if they aren’t real. Is Kamoshida-sensei really this… horrible?”

Eijirou curses to himself, scuffing his shoe on the ground. “Should we go see?”

“I’m not sure,” Izuku says regretfully. “We could get even more lost. Plus…” If he squints, he can see a guard up in the hallway ahead. “If it’s that way, we have to deal with him. I’d rather go back when we’re more prepared.”

“You’re right.” Eijirou’s tone is resigned, and Izuku feels bad. However, they can’t afford to take any chances, at least until they find a means of getting around. The two head in the other direction, taking care in avoiding any unnecessary confrontations, and eventually find a set of stairs that seems to be a way of exiting the dungeons. Excited, they realise that they lead to the main hall, and run out to reach the exit.

“Making the same mistake again?” 

Kamoshida’s voice booms. Seemingly out of nowhere, a group of soldiers materialise. They’re surrounded in seconds, the exit just out of reach. Memories of their first visit to the castle flash by. It ended up being almost identical to their current situation.

Izuku curses to himself. Millions of possible escape plans circulate in his brain, but none of them go far. He just has to wait for an opening.

“I see we’ve allowed two rats to run around for too long,” Kamoshida says, announcing his presence with his familiar drawl. Izuku lifts his head, making eye contact with Eijirou, before he’s dropped to the red carpet, a solid pressure on his back. The shadows of the soldier pinning him down looms over his fallen form, and he’s unable to stifle a groan, hearing his friend’s protests. 

Prometheus stirs in the back of his mind.  _ We can defeat them, _ he hears, and the words only make him frustrated, unsure.

_ Not yet, _ Izuku replies, but now he’s questioning himself. Should he just go for it? Is he doing the right thing?

“Hey.” Fingers snap in front of his face, and Izuku refocuses his vision. Golden eyes look down on him, and he looks back defiantly. Izuku thinks of Shigaraki, and the way he observed Aizawa’s struggle like he was watching his food being prepared. “No more funny business. It’s time to deal with you two like the scum that you are.”

“You’re calling us scum?” Eijirou growls. Nobody’s restraining him, but he stands at a careful distance with readied fists, visibly trying to read into Kamoshida’s exact intentions. “Look at you, being such a poor excuse for a hero! You’re acting far too unmanly!” His hardened expression falters when his statement is met with a laugh.

“Ridiculous! How can you expect to be a hero in a state like this? You’re far too emotional.” Kamoshida’s mouth twists. “You should see the other kids that get accepted here before I get my way with them. Everyone’s mentalities are too weak.” He shakes his head in disappointment, putting on a show with a heavy sigh. “None of you will survive like that. Seriously, this is why hero society is going downhill - the future generations of heroes seem so unreliable.”

Izuku grits his teeth with a scowl, but Eijirou splutters. “What? What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“Why do I even bother? I don’t need you to understand.” Kamoshida’s voice turns sickly sweet. “After all, you’re so cowardly you can’t even stand up for your friend.” Izuku knows the man’s words hit a weak spot. He sees the rapid rise and fall of his friend’s chest, sees Eijirou’s lips tighten.

“Don’t listen,” he yells hoarsely. “He’s just trying to bring you down. Don’t listen to someone like him!” The foot on his back presses down harder. He chokes. “Someone like him shouldn’t be a hero!” 

_ It’s not good enough, _ he thinks. His occasional way of words isn’t shining through, and he’s worried at first, but it seems that his attempt at encouragement helps. Eijirou’s skin hardens, and his eyes blaze, pure determination in his stance. 

“Stop it,” the redhead utters lowly. He steps forward, and the guards that surround them lift up their swords in response, awaiting the word of their false king.

“I may be weak, but I’m still doing my best, and I’m not gonna give up,” he tells Kamoshida. “Stop acting like you know anything about me. Someone like you - someone who stomps on people when they’re down - isn’t a hero!”

Pride fills Izuku’s chest at his friend’s yell. Eijirou takes another step forward, only to stop suddenly. A pulse rattles the air, and he falls to the floor, bursting into flames with a roar. 

He’s awakening. Izuku makes a slightly hysterical sound when he rips off his mask, and he’s probably crying a little when he watches Eijirou emerge with a wide smile that exposes all of his sharp teeth. It happens so suddenly, but he’s there in completely different clothes, shadowed by his Persona.

“Woah,” Eijirou breathes, staring at his gloved hands. “Awesome.”

“Not this one, too?” Kamoshida retreats with furrowed brows, too prideful to simply admit defeat, even though his previous experience with a Persona resulted in him being locked in a jail cell. Eijirou pays him no mind.

“Yo, Izuku. I think it’s time for this guy to get what he deserves,” he says, as beams of light orbit his figure, radiating tones that stain his body blue and make his hair look almost purple. Izuku relaxes.

“I believe in you,” he says, and Eijirou’s smile widens further, if possible. He opens his mouth.

“Heracles, crush them!” His arms open wide, and the air tightens. Kamoshida lets out a yell, and a figure clad in golden armour slams its sword to the ground, red tendrils enveloping its kneeling form. A larger knight emerges on a horse, brandishing a spear, and its master disappears up the stairs. The guards surrounding them disperse.

_ He’s underestimating us. Bad idea. _

“Persona!” Eijirou screams, and breaks into a run. Izuku forces himself to ignore his fatigue, readying himself. He’ll fight, no matter what. He needs to help.

_ As long as I can keep moving, _ he thinks. He closes his eyes, struggling to inconspicuously reach his mask with one hand.

_ Quickly! _ “Prometheus!” Izuku yells out, and instantly feels some energy return to him as his Persona manifests. There’s a crash behind him, and when he hears nothing else, he stands on his wobbly legs, willing himself to regain his strength. Right now, he’s running on pure adrenaline, with the rush of the current battle moving him forward. All Might’s voice echoes in his mind whenever the urge to give in builds up, and Izuku repeats them under his breath as he prepares to strike.

“Go beyond, Plus Ultra.” Dodge, recharge, cleave, fire attack. Whenever Prometheus retreats after attacking, Izuku can almost imagine a steadily-decreasing health bar. Despite the odds of a two-on-one fight, the knight remains standing. Just like the Noumu at the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, it remains visually undeterred by the fight, but it definitely has a limit somewhere.

Izuku’s muscles ache, and there’s likely a bruise forming somewhere. Alongside this, though, he notices the knight’s movements are slowing down.

Eijirou and Izuku fall into a delicate routine, with Eijirou often covering for him and occasionally taking the brunt of an attack. Their movements are still sloppy and slightly uncoordinated, but one final blow enhanced by desperate spurts of One For All sends the knight crumbling to the ground. Izuku falls to his knees, panting, but Eijirou still looks riled up, his Persona lingering behind him.

_ He won’t even fight us himself. _ Izuku slowly gets up, using a breathing exercise to try and regulate his heartbeat.  _ That doesn’t matter, though. He’ll run out of minions eventually.  _

His entire body is protesting, but he’s had much, much worse, and that in itself is enough for him to ignore his fatigue. He also knows that if he can no longer protect himself, he’s only a liability to Eijirou - he wants the redhead to focus without having to worry about him.

Izuku hears a frustrated growl. Kamoshida watches from the top of the grand staircase, framed by guards that speed towards the boys from both sides of the room upon his command. Black smoke erupts from within their armour as they transform into a flittering pixie and horned animal. 

Mere cannon fodder, in comparison to the first one. Pixies are known to be mischievous tricksters, but they’re not perceived as a real threat, which surely reflects here in the castle. Kamoshida’s either getting desperate, or he’s used up his best asset already.

Prometheus itches to dominate the fight, so Izuku hangs back and calls him forth once again. Eijirou follows him, wiping his forehead, and when the pixie shoots his way, Heracles retaliates with a flourish. 

Izuku has to duck away from the pixie’s attack as it swerves like a boomerang around them. He wills his own Persona to participate, and he does so immediately, heat tickling Izuku’s hair. He watches, mesmerised, as a crackling inferno slams into another creature’s chest. It collapses to the floor with a snort.

Eijirou harrumphs in victory. 

“Let’s finish them off,” his friend suggests. Izuku smiles at him.

“An all-out attack?” He wants to fall down and pass out. “Let’s do it.”

The red auras that surround Kamoshida’s underlings flicker slightly. Izuku braces himself.

“Prometheus!”

“Heracles!”

Izuku’s almost blown away by the simultaneous release of both powers. They intersect and almost melt together, before - without warning - exploding into flames, the light blinding as they warp his view of the other side of the room. When they finally die down, Eijirou and Izuku waiting without daring to breathe, they’re alone with Kamoshida.

Izuku sighs in relief, and Prometheus returns to the confines of his subconscious. He touches his fingers to the mask on his face. Eijirou whoops, though it sounds almost painful. He’s breathing extremely heavily, though Izuku can barely notice due to the sound of his own breath.

Eijirou’s laugh sounds like a wheeze. He points a finger up at Kamoshida’s cloaked figure. “Now,” he says, gulping for air, “come down and fight us!”

Izuku shares the sentiment, despite his body’s cues. His hands are shaking, and his knees wobble. He’s definitely waking up with sore muscles tomorrow. Nevertheless, he’s ready for anything and everything, a mantra of ‘go beyond, Plus Ultra’ basically running through his veins and powering his movements.

He didn’t clean up a beach for months for nothing, didn’t go through All Might’s gruelling training regimen just to admit defeat after a few of a fake hero’s minions. He’s survived a villain attack. He’s broken several bones. He can do this.

Izuku’s eyes track Kamoshida’s movements carefully, noticing the way his expression remains aloof. His chest is puffed out, arms crossed.

This isn’t the behaviour of a defeated man. Izuku feels the confusion setting in, then - despite himself - allows his jaw to drop in horror.

Uraraka and Yaoyorozu step out, flanking Kamoshida closely. Their expressions are blank. Eijirou makes an outraged sound.

Izuku squints desperately, seeing the distinct flash of gold in their stares that resembles Kamoshida’s. He closes his mouth. They’re not real. Why’re they here? Did Kamoshida see them at the U.S.J?

“Well?” Kamoshida finally speaks, smirking. “Still feeling that overconfidence?” He slowly uncrosses his arms, and pulls both girls closer. Their bodies are pliant in his grip, and a sickening feeling twists in Izuku’s stomach.

“You bastard,” he hisses, an ugly expression breaking through his initial confusion. “You better not be thinking about the students in the way I think you are.”

“He’s also a pervert,” Eijirou says slowly, like he’s tasting the last word. Judging by the look on his face, it doesn’t taste sweet. He growls. “Officially the most sorry excuse for a hero that I’ve ever seen.”

“He needs his license revoked,” Izuku agreed. Kamoshida claps once, gaining their attention.

“Done with your little chat?” he inquires lowly. “In case you forgot, you’re intruders in my castle. I’m,” he emphasises with a heavy tone, “the king of this castle.” When Izuku and Eijirou fall silent, he continues with a smile. “Now, my proteges, what should we do with these intruders?”

Uraraka giggles. “Obviously, get rid of them!” Her voice is exactly the same, yet barely recognisable.

“They don’t deserve to step foot in your castle, Asmodeus-sensei,” Yaoyorozu sighs. 

_ They haven’t even met him properly, and he knows nothing about them... yet he thinks of them - his students, technically - like this, _ Izuku cringes internally.

“I like your thinking,” Kamoshida says. His eyes sweep over them, his stare making Izuku feel as if he’s breaking out in hives. “These two barge in and have the audacity to disrespect my name! They’re villains.” Before they can protest, he raises his voice. “Guards!”

The echo of multiple footsteps announces the presence of numerous beings before Izuku even sees them. When armoured figures begin to flow out of the doorways, he stumbles back and grabs Eijirou’s gloved hand. The boy yelps, but allows himself to be dragged out, and they run, pushing the large doors open, slamming them shut. They don’t stop running until they’re far away from the huge entrance. Izuku allows himself to drop to the ground, disregarding the deserted streets around him as he rips out his phone.

Please, please, please. He rips off one of his gloves, wiping his hand on his leg. The MetaNav application swallows up his screen.

“We’re leaving. Are you okay?” Izuku questions Eijirou, looking up from the device. The boy snaps to attention, eyes blinking furiously from behind his mask, which extends to his mouth and has four sharp points that look like extra sets of teeth.

“Bro, I’m fine,” he says, then lowers his voice nervously. “Can we go now? I’ll go crazy if I stay here any longer.”

Izuku practically slams his finger against his screen, and the familiar vertigo sets in. A female voice announces their departure as the empty room melts away.

They end up in front of UA. The street is, thankfully, clear. Now that they’re no longer in the castle, the consequences of their activities within it have set in on their bodies. Eijirou groans, and it takes all of Izuku’s willpower not to collapse right then and there.

“Thank god we’re back,” the redhead whines.

“Thank god,” Izuku agrees, then lightens his tone. “You awakened, though! We should head back. I know what that does to your body.”

“For real,” Eijirou winces, rubbing his side. “Didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would, though.”

Izuku hums, turning his narrowed gaze to the ground. “Maybe it’s different for everyone? Or maybe you accepted your Persona more wholeheartedly, so it was easier for you. I don’t know, though,” he muses. “It’s not like I wasn’t accepting of Prometheus, of course.” There’s a chuckle in his head.

Eijirou considers his words. “That’s possible, actually. I dunno either, though.” 

There’s a lull in the conversation. Izuku scratches the back of his neck. “So, my place?”

“I think your place is closer, so I’m down,” Eijirou says jokingly. “Will your mum mind?”

“Not at all,” Izuku reassures. He checks his phone. “If we leave now, we’ll make it in time for a late lunch. Unless you wanna wait til dinner?”

“Nah, let’s have linner.” Eijirou frowns to himself. “Dunch? Drunch?” he tries. Before Izuku can comment, though, a creaking noise alerts the pair. They turn around, and he feels his breath catch when he realises that the school gates are sliding open.

Standing past the gates is a small rodent-like creature dressed in formalwear, with a distinct scar over its beady eye. 

_ His _ beady eye, Izuku silently corrects in horror. Their school principal, Nezu, is standing there.

“Principal Nezu?” Eijirou voices, and the rodent starts clapping in delight.

“Excellent! Just as I predicted,” he says jovially. “Please do come in, Izuku Midoriya and Eijirou Kirishima! I was expecting you two.” The two aforementioned teenagers exchange glances, revealing similar states of shock. The principal’s pleasant tone does nothing to ease their worries; in fact, it only worries them further. Nezu’s calm - too calm. Having missed the orientation and principal’s speech, this is their first time meeting, and Izuku can’t tell if he just always talks like that.

They bow in earnest, mumbling almost incoherent words of polite agreement. Izuku feels like he’s been caught doing something he shouldn’t, and an unexplainable shame makes his shoulders nearly reach his ears.

“I won’t keep you two for long, since you must be tired,” Nezu continues, leading them into the campus. Eijirou catches his eye once again, which doesn’t go unnoticed by the principal. “You two aren’t in trouble. In fact, I’ve been finding you quite interesting.”

So this is just his natural tone. However…

He’s obviously seen them go into the castle, then. Izuku relaxes his tense posture slightly, biting his lip, trying not to accidentally voice his thoughts. Of course. It was inevitable. Just how much does he know, though? Once they reach the principal’s office, Nezu locks the door behind them. There’s a set of teacups laid out on the table.

“Please, take a seat.” They do, exchanging silent pleads for help through eye contact. The rodent brings out a teapot. Izuku catches himself wringing his hands, then watches him pour them cups of green tea with precision, and doesn’t utter a single word until he sits down from across them and opens his mouth.

“It seems you two lack much information about the Metaverse.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i repeat: not beta read
> 
> yo yo i decided to make the personas not only represent rebellious souls but HEROIC souls cause,,,, mha yo,,,,
> 
> Again, another v hard chapter to write! I don’t like how i wrote the castle bits, since it’s hard to interpret gameplay into believable writing u know? I had to jump to rewatch the anime a bit
> 
> I HOPE U LIKE IT AAAAAAAA p.s. I drew izuku?? I very much wanted to leave the designs to ur interpretation but this is a possibility of what his outfit would look like :0  
> (actually it was supposed to b a full drawing w prometheus in the back n EVERYTHING but life happened so i couldnt finish it)
> 
> https://imgur.com/a/2bN6x7r

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading ! i'm kinda excited to see how this goes because waow i am actually trying to be a little creative and change things up a little!


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